It’s three days into the new year already. Should we be talking about people who have a passion for old stuff … lots of it, the cost running into millions of rupees, the time span, of many years spent in a blur of acquisition?
There’s a very fine line between hoarding and collecting.
But while there’s some sort of dignity in owning up to a collection of say, butterfly specimens preserved in glass cases, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who readily admits to being a hoarder. Isn’t holding on to the past a mental condition, a route to the psychiatrist’s couch, you may wonder.
But let’s leave the serious questions for another day and meet two people who have been collecting things as disparate as wristwatches, church pianos, matchboxes, toys and cameras. Both T. Mathan and S. Saravanan of Tiruchi say their lives are ruled by their love for collecting things.
The vintage of their antiquities is varied – from a few decades to a few centuries – but there’s no denying the pride that they feel when they display their collection to a curious outsider.
‘I want what nobody else has’
T.Mathan grows roses and capsicums commercially in Sirumalai near Dindigul throughout the week, but his heart resides in his K.K. Nagar, Tiruchi home, where he has kept his extensive collection of stamps, currency notes, cameras and matchboxes. And while it may not be possible to see Mathan’s collection in its entirety during a single visit, the samples that he shows are proof enough of how deep his interest runs.
“I started collecting stamps in 2003, after graduating from college in Madurai,” says Mathan. “I went to simply take a look at the collection of senior philatelist Ramanujam, but I got completely hooked to it.” Purchasing a part of Ramanujam’s stamp collection (which the nonagenarian had started while still a schoolboy), Mathan shifted to online auctions. “I always look for the prestige value - I want something that nobody else owns. I have been buying a complete sheet of stamps every year from 2003. After a few years, as their value goes up, I can raise funds for another purchase by auctioning some of these off,” he says.
Among the rarities in his collection are the first three postal stamps of independent India (1947), and a hard-to-find Rs.10 stamp of Mahatma Gandhi (1948) printed by the Indian government in Switzerland shortly after his assassination.
As e-mail slowly eats up the postal system, the number of stamps being printed is also going down, says Mathan. “But this could also make them more valuable for collecting as days go by,” he feels.
Mathan has started a new sub-series in stamp collection – ‘philatelic terms’ such as tin can mail, pigeon post, dog sled mail, prisoners’ mail and so on – just to keep his interest going.
Other things that have caught his fancy are Indian currency notes, from British era to present. Mathan has been careful to collect notes with printing errors as these are more valuable than the regular ones.
“Coins are easier to counterfeit than stamps,” says Mathan. “I’ve preferred to go for certified coins to avoid legal problems,” he says. Using the grading service of the American Numismatics Society, Mathan reckons he has only eight coins left to complete his collection that has items as diverse as British East India Company ‘varagans’ used in the Madras Presidency, to a Queen Victoria coin that cost Rs.22,000. But immigration authorities are cracking down on coin sales and postage, he says, which is why he has stopped collecting them for now.
Mathan has got matchboxes from the 1960s. “It’s crazy, but you can get collector’s matchboxes for $2000 in countries like Slovenia,” he says. “Some Slovenian collectors want to exchange matchboxes for stamps.”
Despite the huge amount of research that Mathan has put into his passion, he has never thought of exhibiting his treasures. “I’m worried about security, plus I haven’t finished archiving and preserving all that I have bought,” he says. “I may have spent at least Rs.20 lakhs on my collection since I started, but it’s been a great journey so far.”
‘Every item has a story behind it’
A profusion of things greets visitors to S.Saravanan’s house in Ponmalaipatti. There’s the imposing church piano made by Dwarkin and Son (Calcutta) in the shed behind the garage. The wristwatches, table clocks and telephones crowding out the showcase, the filming equipment, the restored motorcycle, toys, cameras, paintings, gramophones and records …
The young collector, who says he has been a great fan of Chennai’s Moore Market since a very early age, smiles sheepishly when he’s asked for details about his compulsive desire to surround himself with at least three flea markets’ worth of things.
“Every item here has a story,” says Saravanan, who is a spice trader by profession. “But you can hear it only if you listen to it.”
Among his finds are an 18th century pocket watch, a candlestick phone, and an LP record of the song I’m the Greatest featuring the voice of boxing great Muhammad Ali.
Saravanan, 23, has decided to stop collecting for now, to try and make sense of what he’d like to do with all the things he has got so far.
“I’ve spent around Rs.8-10 lakhs on these objects. I’m sure they will be worth more today. But online auctions have inflated the prices, and also made it easier to float replicas in the market.”
