It’s a bit like opening the secret door in a C.S. Lewis book to enter the world of Narnia where the marsh- wiggle Puddleglum says, “I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can, even if there isn’t any Narnia.” The fantasy furniture of colonial India preserved lovingly by its die-hard fans may just about let us do that.
The attic is full of furniture and I make my way to a glossy, well-made dining table whose top is suspiciously thick. “Did you see how it pulls out? It can expand from six feet to ten”, says Elamma Kuruvilla. Elamma started furniture restoration in 2003, but her love for restoration goes back to her grandfather who once ran the erstwhile Wren Bennett. She shows me an elegant table and yanks out an extension from below the top, flips it over and voila — it turns into a card table! “It has the most beautiful legs,” she says with a collector’s passion. I turn my gaze down to admire delicately upturned feet somewhat like an ostrich’s. In the next alcove, Elamma has restored a Jaipur bench. Ornate floral ceramic tiles are carefully fitted into the back, replacing earlier kitschy pictures and a wooden oval is pleasing at the centre. Two long iron hinges on the sides allow the back to flip. Ideally, the bench is placed between the living room and verandah. Vintage pieces are like personalities with peculiar qualities, often serving unusual uses.
Art connoisseur Kiran Rao says, “Each of these pieces evolved for a specific purpose. Now that we don’t do those activities any more, they no longer find a place. The small couch is a forgotten item. In larger houses with nooks and crannies, a little seat would easily fit — a nice spot to catch a bit of breeze!” One of her exquisite finds is an Art Deco bench with storage cubbies below the seat. Older furniture pieces allowed for different ways to convene like the eclectic S-shaped couch, which Rao says continues to be reproduced. What a wonderful way for courting lovers to have a conversation! Kiran Rao’s well-designed spaces at Chamiers and Amethyst tastefully cater to this old-world charm with fussier pieces that lovingly pamper customers. Leather divans without backs allow us to sit both ways. We can comfortably recline on their raised sides. A decorative cupboard with carved doors is converted to house a music system. Rao says, “Plants inside the house can transform the atmosphere. From attractive little stands to art-deco forms these are popular pieces. They can hold containers. Plus, they are not too expensive.”
On the way to Puducherry from Chennai, Aurorachana is en-route to Auroville. In the yard when I visit, the carpenters are working on a large four-poster bed. A transformative aspect about these extravagant four posters is that they create an exotic room within a room simply by their design. On a practical note, the four-poster lets us revert to the use of mosquito nets. Owners Clemens Gruttmann and wife Coco met in Auroville in 1980 — both were from Germany. Coco was passionate about antiques and soon Clemens too was addicted. “Coco brought me into all this! Somehow at one point 35 years ago, we had this dream that the entire garden was full of furniture.” They started an antique furniture and restoration business, primarily as an export house in 1993, which evolved into a centre for furniture restoration and carpentry. “Nowadays we do not get as many antiques as before,” Clemens says, noting the shift to reproduction. “Fifteen years back, I could get a lorry load of old furniture. Now it will take me a year-and-a-half to get the same.
It has become costly and rare.” With more Indians making the incomes to buy expensive furniture, Clemens says that 90 per cent of their clientele today is Indian and many customers are from Chennai. Heritage hotels and hospitality groups also buy from them consistently. Clemens says, “We have a love for carved cupboards. The workmanship of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is something we really appreciate.” Clemens and Coco today are more involved with giving old pieces new lives. Adapting to smaller apartment spaces, they often take carved handicrafts and turn them into functional pieces.
While the taste for antique furniture tends to be restricted to a coterie, delving into this whimsical world certainly makes environments less sparse and with more character. Each of these curious pieces comes to us with a special history. Finally, making a home is about deciding your own choices, not following a boring trend. Like Puddleglum says, as long as we are making up things we may as well make it well worth our while.
