KARACHI: Call it an ode to the Mughal era or simply an individual’s sheer love of traditional arts and culture, Sonia Rehman Qureshi’s furniture exhibition at the Sadequain Galleria on Thursday evening touched the hearts of many with its exquisiteness and historical elegance.
Her collection, which was aptly titled ‘Subcontinent’, included a variety of intricately handcrafted antique pieces belonging to the ancient civilisations of the subcontinent. A blast from the past, the collection was unique and well-preserved.
The three-day exhibition ended on September 7. Qureshi claims that her love affair with signature antiques blossomed when she was only 13 years old. “As a teenager, whenever my uncles, aunts and parents would give me money to buy something for my birthday, it would always be furniture for me,” she tells The Express Tribune.
Collecting pieces for over a really long time, Qureshi shares that there eventually came a point when she had no space left in her house. “There was no place left in my house and my husband Farhan was kind enough to tolerate my indulgence. It went to a point that I asked my mom if I could place some furniture in my old bedroom and then eventually, I also grabbed the opportunity of placing it in my brother’s room too!” she says.
With the rise in modernism and preference for contemporary culture, people who appreciate artifacts are a rare find. “[Sadly] nowadays, people don’t value antique in Pakistan, though it is still considered priceless world-over.
I believe in the revival of these old pieces, and I became very serious about it all, when I had kids of my own. I thought that when I am gone, my daughter needs to look back and say ‘this is our heritage’. The key word remains preservation, here,” asserts Qureshi. She adds that nowadays, the quality of wood and standard of craftsmen is not such that similar pieces can be re-created and people don’t seem to realise that.
The collection consists of 85 pieces altogether including desks, chairs, cabinets and even a grand size bottle bar. With interesting labels like Padshanama chest, Davenport desk, Voyage chair and Haram chest, each piece of furniture has its own story to tell. “Each one of these pieces is a genuine antique that I have tried to preserve,” stresses Qureshi. “With them, I want to evoke passion in people and make them consider old furniture as treasures. Each piece has a story to tell, some as old as 200 years. Let us share these pieces till we are here and after we are gone and let the young ones enjoy.” Qureshi has collected many pieces from rural areas in Sindh like Nagarparkar while some belonged to old Parsi families based in Karachi and those residing in areas of Saddar, Gurumandir and the Parsi colony.
The big Bottle Bar is one such piece that has been in a Parsi family for four straight generations and was thrown out for being too old-fashioned. In an attempt to preserve the sanctity of these antique pieces, Qureshi has toyed with solid colours and used cow-hide skin on sofas to add a bit of contemporary touch. Her all-time favourites are Padshanama chairs and the Haram Chest, which took six months to re-paint.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2013.
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