This is happening all over Goa. An antique piece offurniture that lies neglected as scrap in some remote corner of some ancestralhome suddenly comes under spotlight and fetches a fortune. It even brings‘luck’ to the owner as the demand for such rare artefacts has been soaring inthe national as well as international market over the last decade. The trendhas caught up well in the state too and most of the heritage homes haveactually turned into treasure troves. The market is loaded with such goods now,but at a price.
Set up by two best friends and business partners MaurilioMendonca and Daniel Ferrao ‘The Attic’ and ‘Gallery Attic’ are two such outletswhere wonderful pieces of furniture, pottery, paintings and artefacts arepainstakingly restored to their former glory and are up for grabs. They areinto restoring, reviving and redesigning of old antique pieces of furnituresince 2000.
Daniel recalls, “My grandfather Antonio Pantaleao was anartist and father Francisco Rosario Ferrao was a collector of antique furniture,a numismatic and a philatelist. He preserved beautiful artefacts. He wanted torestore some of the broken objects but with no good restorers around in thosedays there were limitations. He wished I would take up to carpentry and do therestoration, but I did not have the inclination.”
Daniel did post graduation in telecommunications and is anelectronic engineer. Maurilio is post graduate in computers. Both worked inMumbai before they decided to return to Goa for good and did somethingdifferent. “We started a furniture business in 1990, albeit it was newfurniture. We did not want to restore old furniture as my dad would not partwith the restored pieces and so the furniture kept accumulating in each room,”shares Daniel.
The duo interacted with various sets of customers, most ofwhom asked them if they could do something with their old furniture. They didhelp their customers to dispose of the old furniture while replacing it withnew. As both were exposed to the world of antiques from the childhood, it waseasier for them to find a market for the old, used furniture. “Often an oldneglected woodwork would be a centre of attraction after restoration andfetched a good price. In 2000 we stopped making new furniture completely andbegan dealing only in antiques,” says Maurilio.
Daniel worked as a restoration artisan at a museum inPortugal to gain experience and then there was no looking back. After studyingthe age and era of old furniture, the duo revalue its condition and estimatethe price it would fetch, and then the Attic team starts working on it. “Wedismantle the piece, take out nails, fill the cracks with glue and thenassemble it again. The rough or polished look is given as per the demand of thecustomer,” he says.
