Return to Camelot (and a new Del Trotter Bar!)

This is the one you've been waiting for folks!  For me to finally go antiques shopping again.  Well it's the Camelot sale from today until 8th April and there was no way I was going to miss it.

I hadn't been to Camelot for ages - partly to do with having a dog which stops me going shopping - (much to the joy of Mr Jules), and partly because I've actually already stocked up quite nicely at home. Soon there will be room for nothing else in our apartment.  Including us.

But (and apologies to my father-in-law who hates me starting sentences with buts and ands!) today's trip was very fruitful.  The store (which is set in a beautiful colonial villa at Kemps Corner) was full to the brim with gorgeous colonial and Art Deco antiques - all the stuff I just love!  I was actually just looking for a desk chair - to go with the desk I bought from Jogeshwari - but alas I got there too late. The one I liked had already been sold. I remember the last time there was a sale on at Camelot and someone got there before me and stuck their names on everything I liked...give me a chance next time huh?!

Having said that, I did find a teak Art Deco bookcase with glass doors and...wait for it...a cocktail cabinet that turns into a bar!  Ever since I started watching Only Fools & Horses on UK TV back in the 70s, I have hankered after a bar for my own sitting room.  I think that no home should be without one. The version I purchased is slightly more elegant than Del Trotter's though.  It is original Art Deco with stainless steel detailing, mirrored glass doors at the back - and has plenty of slots for bottles and glasses inside.  Where it is actually going to go in our apartment I have no idea - but surely there will be a drinks party at Chez Jules very soon!

Our new cocktail cabinet with the side leaves pulled out to make a bar.  I just love the metal detailing.

Internally - glass and bottle slots and mirrored doors on the back.

With the side leaves folded in - it makes for a more subtle drinks cabinet.

The Only Fools & Horses roomset with bar to the rear.  Tacky or what!

Even if you don't make the Camelot sale - do pop along when you can because the prices continue to be extremely reasonable when compared to Moorthy's and even Chor Bazaar (and you can be assured of good quality and personal service at Camelot).

Here are the pics...thanks for joining me on my latest shopping trip.

Beautifully restored and upholstered piece and plenty of side-tables.

Interesting print used on the sofas in the foreground

Gorgeous antique dining table that can seat a very large family. 1.25 Lakh Rs

Art Deco mirror with coathooks for your hallway

Camelot is currently stocking some very cool, repro lighting.  This sidelamp is 6,000 Rs

I was tempted by this highly polished dining table - quite small and would seat 4 comfortably. 39,000 Rs in the sale.  £390/$500

Very cool industrial style art deco light - 15,000 Rs from memory (enquire).

6,000 Rs (£60/$90)

Also very tempted by this film-style light. 24,000 Rs (£240/$350)

Colonial style furniture which would look great in a conservatory

We also purchased this Art Deco bookcase.  I had been looking for one I like for two years!
Will my match my desk from Oshiwara antiques market perfectly.

Me and Mr Jules?

Camelot
Colonial & Antique Furniture
127 Kemps Corner
Next to Om Chambers
Mumbai
Tel: 91 (22) 2364 4594
Email Camelot127@gmail.com

Sale on until 8th April.  You snooze, you lose.

Read my original post about Camelot here

Magnolia Home Furnishing Store Mumbai (It's Fab!)

Two home furnishing store reviews in a row...what is going on?  Mumbai is on the up, that's what is going on.  Finally, we are getting  new and exciting choices when it comes to making our homes look nice.  And a very clever young lady (and ex-lawyer to boot) - Maulika Gandhi - has spotted a gap in the market for 'home-grown', affordable and stylish furniture. Today, and three weeks after opening, I went to visit Magnolia which is located just off Dr E Moses Road in Worli. 

The airy display space, divided up with floaty drapes - actually has room-sets - which is something you don't often see in Mumbai. And unlike some of the big colonial furnishing stores around the city, there is a distinctly young and 'unstuffy' vibe to the place.  What is even better, Magnolia is pitched at a more affordable level than the prodigious Goodearth.

There are several large made-up beds on show, quirky seating areas (such as the coffee table made from half of an old barrel with a piece of glass on top together with two stools covered with jute), and a few six seater dining sets.  There are also desks made from old sewing machine tables, men's valet stands (for hanging trousers and jackets on), sideboards, bedside tables and so on. The stock is noticeably unhomogenised - each display and each piece of furniture being different from the last.



Barrel coffee table with jute covered stools.  Too cool for school.

Some of the pieces are clearly up-cycled. So I like the fact that the Magnolia is also easy on the environment. Maulika tells me that all the furniture is made from solid wood, including recycled teak - which is also kinder on our forests.  Vintage style fabrics are also used in seat coverings and on cushion covers - I even saw a set of nesting tables (which I think had been made from the wood of old railway sleepers) with Kantha hand stitched fabric under their glass tops.  So unique!

What are also unique (and I couldn't resist buying one of these) are the old brass cooking pots and lassi cups that have been re-fashioned using brass feet - one of these lassi cups is now my new pen pot!  And that's not it for accessories - there are some beautiful Moroccan style table lamps which throw off sparkly lights, marble dishes, framed pictures (which would work very well in a colonial setting), Christmassy tea-light holders, wooden trays, satin bedspreads and cushion covers and some quirky industrial looking 'ornaments'.  Nothing is over-embellished - some of it is contemporary, some of it classic, some of it slightly steam-punk - I reckon there is something for everyone here.

Old brass cooking pots on feet - still can have many uses.  Piled high with oranges or lemons?

I could have waited until the New Year to post this blog, but as part of my Christmas Mumbai Shopping Guide, I think that the candle holders and the brass pots with feet are worth bagging in the last few days before the 25th of December.  Again, be quick!

Upcycled wooden benches with vintage patchwork fabric seats

I like this sophisticated bedroom set.

My new pen pot! (upcycled lassi cup on feet)

A Colonial Vignette

Elegant coffee table - 15,990 Rs

Sample Prices (excluding taxes):
Candle holder 590 Rs
Brass pots on feet: 400-5000 Rs (depending on weight) - my pencil pot was 690 Rs
Coffee Table: 15,990 Rs
Beds: 65,000 - 80,000 Rs
Lantern: 8,990 Rs
Cushion Covers: 1,100 to 1,800 Rs
Jute Stool: 6,990
Photo Frame: 690 Rs

Magnolia
3/C, Hansraj Pragji Warehousing, (Next to Durian Furniture)
LN Pappan Marg (about half way down, you'll see the sign)
Dr E Moses Road,
Worli Naka,
Mumbai 400 018

Tel: +91 22 24951020
E: contact@magnoliahome.co.in



Related subject: please see my blog about contemporary furniture craftsmen SOLLI Concepts here

Camelot - Colonial Antique Furniture

I am actually loathe to give details of this fabulous retail find....but it would be selfish not to.

I have spent weeks hunting high and low for a teak coffee table. Sick of the black laminate and glass atrocity provided by our landlord, I have looked everywhere. I've been to Oshiwara antiques market in Jogeshwari and I've been to Chor Bazaar in search of a bargain. We have been to Phillips Antiques, The Raj Company, and I have also tried Anemone in Raghuvanshi Mills, Colonial Collections in Fort and The Great Eastern Home (a veritable behemoth of antique furniture).  The latter are all the well known places to find antiques and reproduction colonial furniture in Mumbai but all, in my mind, charge ridiculously high prices.  So alas, we have had no luck finding exactly what we wanted.  Then I thought about doing what most Mumbaikars probably do in this situation - have something made. Carpentry is so cheap and lots of people get bespoke stuff done all the time.  However I was lacking a good recommendation and I knew that trying to communicate exactly what I wanted (and to my exacting standards!) to an Indian tradesman would end up being a farce.  So I gave up on that idea too.

Following a notice in my favourite online magazine Mumbai Boss that "Camelot is hosting a sale with up to 30 per cent off on colonial and Art Deco furniture in teak, rosewood and mahogany", I thought that my shallow life was about to be changed .  I literally started salivating at the mouth. What is this shop Camelot? Would I find that elusive coffee table?  Would it be a bargain? Oh how delighted Mr Jules would be!

Unable to go on the first day of the sale (due to my very important humanitarian work/day job), we popped down the following Saturday morning to the Camelot shop in Kemps Corner.  127 Kemps corner (to be exact) is a colonial house down a longish drive off the heaving main road.  Immediately I was taken - colonial antiques in a colonial setting!  (Amy, I hope you are reading this, you would have been beside yourself!).

The beautiful entrance to Camelot

Getting there a day after the sale had begun was a BIG mistake.  Virtually everything was sold out!  Even my dream coffee table (if there is such a thing as a dream coffee table) had been sold and I was devastated!  Oh well I thought to myself.... it just meant that I would have to look around and pick something else out to 'tide me over'.



Perhaps not to your taste, but this was the coffee table I coveted

The Camelot showroom consists of two large rooms and a terrace area displaying conservatory furniture.  There is a good range of high quality art-deco and colonial chair sets, campaign chests, dining sets, sofas, side tables, wardrobes, chests, desks, mirrors and art.  And much more.  It all looks hand-picked - I couldn't see anything poor quality and I don't think much was reproduction (which is the problem when you go antiques hunting in Chor Bazaar or Oshiwara).  Even better, the owners do not seek to rip you off like most other antique places.  The prices were very reasonable and even more reasonable during the sale. 



Indo-Portuguese rosewood dining set.  I would have bought this had it not been 'sold'

I told the lady that I was very upset that the coffee table had been sold but she told me not to worry as she would let me know as soon as a similar one came in.  Watch this space!!

In the meantime, and because I can't resist a sale, Mr Jules bought a teak art deco side table to go next to the sofa and for himself, a lovely teak medicine chest.  Well he thinks it's for him, but it so happens that it perfectly houses my lovely new collection of Chimanlal stationery....

UPDATE 15.03.13
Please see my latest blog on Moorthy's - a paradise for colonial antique furniture.  Find the blog here.

New teak medicine chest on top of new art deco side table.  The teak chest was 3,000 rupees in the sale (£35/$52)

Perfect for my new collection of beautiful Chimanlals stationery!

Side table.  Lamp from Pure Living, Phoenix Market City (Bandra Kurla).
"Bombay Art Deco" book by Navin Ramani from Crossword, Kemps Corner

More images of Camelot (with thanks to the Manager):



Art deco rocking chairs, chests and side tables in a terrace setting

The obligatory Ganesh

Colonial sofa set on the balcony

A good selection of affordable, art deco colonial furniture.  Stuff I love!

Camelot
Colonial & Antique Furniture
127 Kemps Corner
Next to Om Chambers
Mumbai
Tel: 91 (22) 2364 4594
Email Camelot127@gmail.com

Chimanlals
(Beautiful hand crafted stationery)

www.chimanlals.com

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Wallace Street,
Fort, Mumbai 400 001.
Close to New Excelsior Cinema

Update 31/03/13 - Please read my (almost) complete guide to buying colonial antique furniture in Mumbai here: http://bombayjules.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/where-to-buy-colonial-antique-furniture.html 

Update 05/04/2014 - Please read my post about returning to Camelot for its April 2014 sale.