COLLECTIONS UNIQUE - FOR ANTIQUITIES AND CURIOSITIES

With a legacy passed on from his father and with around 35 years of experience in the art of restoring old furniture, T K Asokan runs Collections Unique, a showroom of antique furniture and curios on Khader Nawaz Khan Road.  The first impression, as one enters the shop, is the distinctive smell of wood and a display of some remarkable pieces of furniture rarely seen in homes today.

The shop was started in 1997, after Asokan shifted his business from Kodaikanal, which his father had established in 1932.  Being a well-known ivory carver, his father had opened a shop dealing in ivory items, and it was well patronised by the Christian missionaries staying in the hill-station.  By 1973, around the time when ivory was banned, the shop had expanded into furniture restoration and was also selling curios and antiques.

Most of the items in 'Collections Unique' come from a workshop at Madurai, which is run by one of Asokan's sons.   According to Asokan, the Madurai and Chettinad regions have a rich collection of antiques, and the ones that find their way to his Madurai centre are restored and sold at the Chennai showroom.

Wooden pieces fill the showroom with the occasional original Tanjore painting, some glass paintings (also from Tanjore) and a few curios, like the oil painting by one of Ravi Varma's contemporaries.  The wood is mostly teak, rosewood, ebony, cedar and jack wood.  The shop also makes copies of antique furniture using old wood, which gives it the look and feel of the original.

The showroom has some rare and interesting items like a painted, heavy wooden chest with metal work, from Kerala, which was used by Kathakali performers to store their costumes. There are also matching pot-like containers for storing their paints.  There is an unusual card-game table, where the big top of the table can be folded inside when not in use to convert it into a smaller table.

An original 'Davenport ebony' writing table made in India, is a marvellous piece of furniture.  Then there are several roll-top desks with their many pigeonhole shelves and slots for stationery there is even one with a secret compartment. One very fascinating piece on sale is a copy-a wooden bar with a granite top, replicated from a piece from Hong Kong.

The other pieces are no less in their artistry and skill ' ranging from cabinets for medicines to pallankuzhis (a game played with tamarind seeds), bookcases, cupboards, a clothes stand, chest-of-drawers, an accountant's desk, dressing tables, chairs and wall panels.

The price ranges from Rs 600 for a small wooden chest to Rs 60,000 for the Davenport writing table.  Customers are mostly foreigners settled in India and people who are really keen on antique furniture and willing to pay for it. Asokan is planning to shift the business to East Coast Road shortly, to club it with his son's curio shop.

Working Hours: 9.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Open all days of the week

Address: Collections Unique, Brindhavan, 11, Khader Nawaz Khan Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai- 600 006.
Phone: 822 3561.

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