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Touch Wood
If you are a lover of antique furniture, Tawakkal is the ideal store for you. WHAT'S ON went for a visit and got a history lesson for free
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Kissing chair | Haji Abdul Sattar worked in the furniture trade for over a decade, having trained under karigars for a meager wage of 6 annas a day. Having build a reputation as an expert on the trade and on the valuation of antique furniture, today, Sattar is often called in to value furniture and can place and put a price on a piece with just a glance.
Tawakkal means trust in Arabic, and the spacious store has surely built the trust of its discerning customers. Neelam Gupta, one of the regular customers remarks, "Tawakkal reminds me of my ancestral home, with its lovely old-world furniture."
Ambience and range: Walk into the showroom and lose yourself among the antique chairs, old drawer chests, hat-stands, rocking as well as easy chairs, teapoys, cupboards with inlay work, roll-top writing bureaus, mirrors, book cupboards and four-poster beds in Burmese teak or rosewood. Check out the "kissing chair", which is modelled after the Victorian courting chair and allows two people to sit face-to-face comfortably.
Sattar is now in his seventies and is helped by his three sons Nayeem, Nahid and Nasir, in running the family business.
Handpicked selection: Even though Sattar and his sons scour old Parsi bungalows (often known as the last bastion of antiques), they still don't manage to get more than a century-old furniture.
"It is quite tough today to source period furniture," rues Sattar. "In the olden days, I bought and sold pieces from the Mughal, Victorian, Jacobean, Tudor, Elizabethan and Napoleonic eras. It has all changed now, though," he adds.
He does manage to get hold of some valuable pieces when people shift from old, spacious ancestral bungalows into smaller apartments.
Other sources of wares are attics, ramshackle bungalows, store-rooms and garages. He personally has a fondness for filigreed rosewood furniture, old wooden chests, screens with latticework, tiled almirahs and ivory inlaid chairs.
For a man who detests plywood, formica and sunmica, Sattar is appalled at the quality of wood being used these days, and especially at the prices charged. "Nowadays, people prefer to use particle board furniture even though it isn't durable.
The concept of passing on furniture as a heirloom is dying out," he says.
Many valuable, hand-crafted antiques and heirlooms have passed through his store to collectors and antique furniture enthusiasts. Sattar is kept busy with dedicated collectors, connoisseurs, and even royalty calling on him to restore their possessions or purchase his wares.
Targeted at: The store caters to a select few who have a taste for all things old, observes Nasir, one of Sattar's sons, who runs the store today. He also believes that though people, by and large, are more attracted to stylish-looking furniture, there are still some who opt for antique furniture.
At: Shop 7, Tain Square, Fatima Nagar, opposite Reliance Mart.
Call: 9890311554
Price list
Small antique pieces Rs 3,000 onwards
Cupboards Rs 12,000 onwards
Book cupboards Rs 8,000 onwards |
