An era's soul on sale

If you have been hankering after beautiful antique furniture or objets d'art from bygone Indian life, here is your chance to bring them home

Auction house Pundole's will put a number of these under the hammer on September 3 and 4 in Mumbai. Its 'Fine and Decorative Arts Sale' will include property from the estate of Laura Hamilton, an English woman who started the Malabar Boutique at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai in 1962. The proceeds of the sale of items from her estate will go for charity under the JRD Tata Trust.

Beside mahogany furniture, jade and porcelain objects, you can bid for paintings by artists like Raja Ravi Varma, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, MF Husain and early British artists in India, among others. On sale also are Gandhara, Mughal and medieval statuary as well as miniature paintings. Interestingly, there are some grand saris too for the taking. You can also get your hands on old English crockery, silver decoratives and engravings, some royal, others more plebeian. When the auctioneer intones "gone!" for the last time, you would have taken a piece of an Indian era home.

The auction will take place at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai