Wooden relics of time, revived

A three-part life-size Christian altar in peeling paint from Kochi will welcome you at the entrance of the Coomarswamy Hall at CSMVS till Monday evening. The restored sacred icon is a harbinger of all the elegantly re-instated furniture at the exhibition-cum-sale by the House of Mahendra Doshi. It's one of Mumbai's oldest establishment to nurse pieces of old, discarded furniture to their former glory, since 1974. It's only social media presence is a Facebook page, created last week, before this exhibition. Until now, the business solely functioned on word-of-mouth and the CSMVS exhibition, held every two years.

House of Mahendra Doshi has previously showcased entire exhibitions on ancient chests, boxes and trunks, and colonial Portuguese furniture from Goa. The current edition shows furniture from three different periods: the British and Dutch colonial era (1900-30s), Art Deco era (1935-60), and the mid-century Modern era of Chippendale and Kamdar furniture (1960-75). The pieces are not arranged according to their chronological timelines, but in a borderless setting of an office, bedroom, or living room – classic showroom style. So a colonial rosewood-and-brass-inlay cash box with innumerable slots from Kerala becomes an immediate neighbour to a tall and sturdy Art-Deco style Jhanda/Tiranga (after the Indian flag) teak cupboard from Mumbai, made of three main divisions with multiple drawers, compartments and a multi-wood inlay facade of rosewood and cedar in solid strips. Lying snugly, next to this, under an ageing six-pillar canopy with hanging lamps from Gujarat is a colonial, 6x7-ft bed in teak from Kolkata, flanked by two yawning lion bed posts.

The late Mahendra Doshi, it is said, could rework absolute scrap into a thing of beauty, by visualising every last detail of its restoration, much to the fascination of his nephews – brothers Asim and Chiki Doshi, and their cousin, Anand Gandhi, who now run the business. Chiki, who worked closely with his uncle, says, "The trick is in how you repair the piece. Treat it like your own child, and you can live with it for the rest of your life. Painting it black as opposed to the original colour or using inferior polish is a travesty."

Their three-storeyed workshop-cum-showroom space at Walkeshwar is full of successful examples: A mid-18th century rosewood table with sleek body, a roll-top design and typical Indo-Portuguese 'sunburst' patterns coexisting with worn out Art Deco chairs, mostly without a shred of upholstery, and clothed in decades of dust. Alongside, there are brass cooking vessels into which one can easily slip and cozy up, glazed Chinese urns, copies of Greek amphoras, an arrays of trunks – damachas, majusa, etc., waiting to be restored.

Exclusivity is the key which is reason why the trio overlooks even the exquisite. "We no longer buy sundooks (dowry chests) or convert bullock carts into coffee tables," says Chiki, who has a "soft corner" for Christian iconography and owns wooden statues of Jesus and Virgin Mary, crosses, and Calamander wood Bible boxes. 

The market, however, he admits, is almost empty of truly fine colonial furniture. "There's a dearth now, unlike in the 50s and 60s, when these were thrown away for Art Deco and mid-century pieces. The dealers who got it and gave it to us, and we to the end users, but now that circle is over. The really beautiful ones have been sold off, or lying are in people's homes," says Chiki, who now reproduces exact replicas of these models. "The 80-year-old pieces that we restore were once upon a time brand new. Today's reproductions can become tomorrow's antiques."