Walking inside Taj Connemara is always a pleasant experience, with its air of timelessness and slow elegance. Today, that air is intensified, with some stunning pieces of furniture slipped into the décor, right from the anteroom and lobby. I spot a carved side table, stylish armchairs, a tiny chest of drawers in a gorgeous satiny white wood that looks like pine or maple... Taj Khazana is having a curated show of fine furniture, art and artefacts in association with The Great Eastern Home, Mumbai’s famous furniture and collectibles store.
We walk up to a small inner courtyard garden, and find elaborately carved easels (made by The Great Eastern Home) that display paintings by contemporary artists, while the space indoors is done up like a sitting room dotted with some absolutely fabulous antique furniture and collectibles.
Quaintly named The Grand Trunk Show, the concept of an annual curated exhibition was launched in February this year, at Taj Faluknama in Hyderabad, and Chennai is the fifth city it comes to. The show lives up to its name by taking as its theme the great trade routes that connected India with the world. “We are trying to tell stories through furniture and collectibles,” says Sarita Hegde Roy, COO, Taj Khazana. And really, what better stories to tell than those created by the extensive trade and commerce that has thrived in India since ancient times. Also, marrying the old with the young, the show throws together contemporary artwork with the antiques.
The show is a mix of imported antiques as well as reproductions. “We have tweaked it for each city,” says curator Anurag Kanoria of The Great Eastern Home. Thus, while Delhi’s show had Mughal accents and Mumbai’s old Parsi, Chennai has pieces that tell tales of India’s flourishing trade with China, Burma and even Korea.
Some of the pieces that took my breath away included a 60-70 year-old Chinese bench in hardwood stained deep red and worked over with gold leaf; a beautiful bronze corner stool shaped like an inverted cone and embellished with carved frogs; a carved mahogony Edwardian jewellery cabinet and umbrella stand; and a pair of delicate display cabinets from Korea dating back to the 1700s, complete with intricate brass corner brackets.
Get a piece of the past tomorrow (the show’s last day) at Vivanta by Taj-Connemara.
