Vintagwala @Oshiwara



The Oshiwara old furniture market

You can live in Mumbai for years but never know this street existed. Nestled amongst the suburbs is the Oshiwara old furniture market where everything from broken to torn to worn and thrown is available, but you need to have an eye for the right piece which will add perfectly to your house. 

I have been visiting this market on and off for past 7 years whenever I really need a special piece of furniture say a tiled side table, a hardwood book shelf with carved brackets, a vintage show cabinet or a grand four poster bed backrest, you can get it all here. 

Oshiwara is the right place if you want a good deal on rehashed old furniture. 

The rates are reasonable and open to bargain. 

The designs are vintage and classy but that's because most of the furniture is old. 

They do have copies and very good ones indeed. The only disclaimer I give is you are on your own. 

The design specifications, price negotiations, the delivery dates and the finished product you have to be involved to endure everything. 

In the midst of all the piled up furniture there are two particular ships which offer the real deal. 
Gramin Arts has genuine antiques sourced from length and breadth of India. 

They carry a great collection for  a vintage lover, take a look yourself  - the heavy brass tiffin and mobile cooker typical to South, ancient water coolers, enamel cookery from Karaikudi, Raja Ravi Varma's lithographs, wooden masks, Rajasthani jharokhas, vintage print frames, bake light switches, and so on. 

I especially love their tin box and poster collection. It's quirky, kitsch and colourful. 


And there was another shop which had the manufactured bulk antique look alikes from the factories of Muzzafarpur,
these pretty imitations  of vintage lamps, brass bells, Roman numeral clocks or gramophone. 

But amidst them you will find unique religious paintings, or the collection of vintage toy cars. 

I think Vintagewala should have an eye, the special eye of a treasure hunter. To find treasure from memories of another, the heirlooms passed from one generation to another, to stories never told, to stories witnessed, to dust settled, to marks left, to the rust, to the faded, that's Vintagewala. That's us, we collect, we keepsake! 


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