Hammers down

Debaleena Sengupta spends a Sunday morning at Kolkata’s auction houses, and comes away saddened at the sorry state of the once grand institutions.

Sunday mornings are a quiet time on Russell Street, the busy throughfare off Park Street, Kolkata’s commercial hub. The weekday office crowd is missing and even the shops open late. But there’s unusual hubbub inside the three auction houses along this stretch.

“Auction here today” says a blackboard at the unimpressive entrance of Russell Exchange which started operations in 1940 and is older than the other two on the stretch — Mohan Exchange and Suman Exchange. Inside, a woman standing on a low podium is busy reading out a list into a loudspeaker. A crowd is gathered around a table heaped with objects — wretched-looking wall hangings, broken plastic clocks, worn-out sauna belts, mobile chargers, old torches and other knick-knacks. The prices of the items on offer start at Rs 20-25 and go up to Rs 170.

What a sad come down it has been for a once grand business that was a regular haunt for rich and discerning buyers looking for rare artifacts — period furniture, crockery, electronic items, knick-knacks of home décor, books, music and other collectibles. The auctions business in the city had flourished during the late raj period as British officers on deputation left for home, auctioning off their belongings. Calcutta, then the primary city of British India, also had several foreign embassies which would periodically sell off stuff, which found their way to the auction houses.

You get a sense of the bygone glory of auctions from the character of Hiralal Shah in Satyajit Ray's Jana Aranya. A Bengali contractor, Shah would be on the lookout for old colonial mansions in the city that were on sale and strip them off to auction their belongings for profit. Ray regularly sourced items from city auction houses to be used as props in his films. “Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen and Moon Moon Sen used to drop in frequently to buy British furniture and items of home décor,” says Sarfaraz Javed, partner, Russell Exchange.

The profile of clients is very different now: rickshaw pullers, taxi drivers, small-time mobile dealers and housewives who come to pick up things for the house at a bargain. Of course, there is still the odd elite or middle-class customer who comes in either out of curiosity or on his way back from his morning walk on the Maidan nearby.

“Foreign embassies moving out of the city has severely affected auctions,” says Javed. “Now people come to us to auction their household rejects and we put it under the hammer on 15 per cent commission.” Also, with standards of living improving, the middle class can afford to buy new furniture and electronic items, instead of getting them second-hand from auctions. “Even a poor man can now own branded goods which would have been out of his reach earlier,” says Javed.

Russell Exchange also sells old clothes every Thursday — the only auctioneer in the country to do so — charging a high 25 per cent commission for the service. It also has a direct sales counter selling furniture and knick knacks on 15 per cent commission, with service tax extra. “Until a few years ago and owing to the space constraint in modern apartments, everyone was buying multi-utility furniture and selling off old heirlooms made of wood; but now we see furniture in old design in vogue again,” says Javed. Notably, the auctioneers do not auction antique as it is prohibited under law.

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“The auction business has deteriorated badly and we are struggling despite charging 20 per cent commission,” says Manu Singh, owner of Modern Exchange next door which was founded in 1952. Broken lamp shades and discoloured crockery are on sale here for prices starting from a mere Rs 25.

Most of the people bidding here are floating customers, but there are regulars as well, mostly small mechanics and spare-parts dealers, who attend the auctions held every Sunday from 1 pm to 4 pm. Ismet Siddiqui had been coming for the last 25 years and has never gone home empty handed. “Every time you fall for something or the other and can’t help bidding for it,” says Siddiqui. Similarly Chaman Begam, a housewife from the southern suburb of Mullickpur, has been coming to Russell Exchange for 15 years now, giving in household reject for auction and buying something in exchange. “It's an addiction where there is no loss, only gain," she says.

“It is a family business and we have no option but to continue it,” says Singh. Javed, on the other hand, maintains that it’s not just the family connection but a matter of sentiment too. And, often, from the heap of rejected items he chances upon a rare piece. “I auctioned a beautiful marble statue last month for Rs 280,000,” says Javed.

But these are rare occurrences. A number of famous auction houses in the city such as Dalhousie Exchange and Stainer & Co have already shut shop, while some have rented space to restaurants. With a handful of staff remaining, how long will the existing ones struggle to stay afloat?