Treasure Hunters: Making Other People's Collections Your Business

Image: Dinesh Krishnan

R.K. Moorthy
Location: Mumbai
Dealing In: Furniture
Since:1977

In a world obsessed with the new and the high-tech, the bright and the shiny, some people see great value — monetary, yes, but also something more intangible — in items from bygone eras.

Some are small collectors, others expend minor fortune on their obsessions. Many collect for their own pleasure, or, quite simply, as an investment, but an increasing number also do so because they see it as the thing to do to be seen as cool.

Whatever their stripe, as collecting antiquities becomes more viable, it gets more difficult to source them. More and more collectors, as a result, turn to specialists to help them with their quests. Enter the antiquities agents and dealers.
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Around 1640, there were 5,500 workers making furniture for the Dutch in South India. Today these pieces are among the most valuable antiques in India.

The business functions through a vast army of middlemen that supply big city dealers like R.K. Moorthy.  He used to be in the construction business, and had to deal with people in the furniture trade. As he grew skilled in identifying wood, he got more interested in antique furniture. He noticed that the awareness of their value was increasing, which seemed like a good business opportunity to him.

In any given month, he receives offers from people who scour furniture bazaars in small towns across India. (Over the years, dealers have built niches in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat, three states where old pieces of furniture are easy to get.) His main skill lies in making a call on whether the piece is genuine. With the number of reproductions in the market, protecting credibility is one of his most important aims. “It’s a skill you develop over time,” he says, and refuses to elaborate. Today, antique furniture is harder to come by and, naturally, prices have shot through the roof. Three years ago a 10-seater dining table could be had for Rs. 50,000–60,000 but now you’d be lucky if you paid thrice that.

Almost always the furniture he gets is damaged. Restoration is, perforce, an art he has honed over the years. There are globally accepted restoration norms, he says. First, any signs of wear and tear — chipped sides or burn marks — must be kept intact. Second, polishing and varnishing must make a piece of furniture look like it would have when it was first made, without changing the colour. Most dealers, he says, spend a lot of money making furniture look like it was in its original state, which is not the aim of restoration. He points out to how he never polishes drawers from the inside.  Still, some items like dining table chairs and locks have to be remade. “There’s no getting around that.”

Even after 33 years in the trade, he never ceases to be fascinated by antiques. “In 1983 I was in Coimbatore and I bought an American-made coin-operated toy for Rs. 350. This was made anywhere between the 1910s and 1930s. Later, while going through the British Antique Gazette I realised the toy was worth Rs. 85,000! Those are the twists and turns this business can bring.”
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Madhu Kapparath for Forbes India

Rajesh Gupta
Location: Kanpur
Dealing In: Cars
Since: 1990s

Ever since he can remember, Rajesh Gupta was passionately interested in classic and vintage cars. There was one problem though. His family was in the hospitality trade, with two small hotels in Kanpur; he couldn’t really afford them. Nevertheless, with help from his father, he did buy himself a Standard Super 10. In 1987, he entered his fist vintage car rally in Lucknow and, much to his surprise, ended up winning the coveted long distance coverage prize. That was enough to convince him that he wanted to own more of those old beauties.

But buying these cars at a reasonable price was a problem for Gupta. As demand for vintage and classic cars rose, he often found himself shut out of the market. So he decided to do the next best thing: Supply these cars to wealthy collectors.

Here, Gupta had an advantage: He had both the time and inclination to travel and source these cars himself. Unknown to most vintage car enthusiasts, India’s small towns and erstwhile princely states are a treasure trove of old cars. Wealthy aristocratic families would often import several models and leave them for the next generation, which was often not interested in maintaining the cars. They’d wind up in scrap markets, sold for the price of their metal.

Gupta knew he would have to get out and search for these cars. His strategy was simple. People travelling in trains and buses were his most valuable sources of local information. He would set off on seven- to 10-day trips around the former principalities in Assam, Bihar, Bengal and Orissa, and strike up conversations with fellow passengers. His questions would be simple: “Have you heard of any places where there are old cars?” “Would the owners be interested in selling?” “Could you introduce me to the owners?” He would supplement this with visits to auto workshops in the area, where he would pose the same questions. He admits, though, that “both these strategies are hit or miss.”

Then, one hot summer afternoon in 2006, he found himself in Kolkata’s Malik Bazaar, asking his usual questions. A paanwalla told him that he knew of a house in Chandanagore that had several old cars. Gupta got the address and soon found himself at the door of a large bungalow belonging to a Marwari family. They were suspicious, naturally, and wouldn’t even show him the cars. But then, that evening, they called him and told him they wanted to sell a Morris 1000. They had tried to sell it to local scrap dealers, and all they were offered was Rs. 6,000. Would he offer more? Gupta knew well how big the demand for vintage cars was; he knew he could get a much higher price. He struck a deal with the family for Rs. 18,000.

Their trust earned, the family proceeded, over the course of that year, to sell him another 11 cars, and a horse carriage. He found buyers for all those cars and a profit for himself, which gave him enough funds to travel and buy whenever he wanted.

Which was extremely fortunate for him. Because, in the last five years, the prices of old cars have increased significantly, and dealing in them has moved from being a passion to a business. From a capital base of less than Rs. 25,000, he now has Rs. 75 lakh set aside to buy cars. Over the years, with his earnings from these deals, he’s managed to increase his personal collection to 12 cars. While he still scouts his territory by train and bus, he now also gets there by plane. He sold 20 cars this year. And he’s been able to meet wealthy collectors like Mani Shankar Aiyar, K.T.S. Tulsi and Shiela Dixit.
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Farokh Todywala
Location: Mumbai
Dealing In: Coins
Since: 1960s

Coin collectors are usually private individuals with very little desire to show their collections in public. They’re rarely written about or profiled, and their dealers are even less well known.

In the 1960s, Farokh Todywalla got curious about coin collecting. The American magazines he read would often advertise for old coins, offering to pay a fixed amount for nickels, quarters and dimes from the early 1900s. Curious, Todywalla, who worked surrounded by money (he was with Central Bank of India), began to spend his spare time looking for Indian coins to see what they were worth. Eventually, he quit his job and became a full-time dealer. Today, the Todywallas (Farokh’s son Kaizad now works with him) have a flourishing numismatic business, and over 30 years worth of experience in servicing coin collectors.

They are chary of talking about their clients or giving away trade secrets; all they will tell you is that the vast majority of their buyers are old-timers with an appreciation for the finer things in life. Their main sources of supply: Jewelers from small cities as well as individual coin collectors who have fallen upon hard times. The senior Todywalla remembers back to the 1980s. He had heard that in Patan (a small town in Gujarat),  one could get coins from the time of Jehangir, coins that would be particularly valuable for collectors as most of them had the pictures of zodiac signs on them, something rarely found on Indian coins. But when he got to Patan, no matter who he asked, there were simply no coins to be found. Then his colleague had a brainwave: He rang a gong in a crowded marketplace and said they were in town looking for old coins and were willing to pay for them. Almost immediately people started inviting them home to show them their collections. Most were bemused that someone was actually willing to buy them. Eventually Farokh ended up buying coins for Rs. 700–800 and sold them for Rs. 25,000–30,000.

Usually, though, the private nature of their trade also means that they have to make personal calls on their clients and work hard at understanding the preference of each customer. It’s not just coins; Collectors often prefer paper money, as the inscriptions are invariably in English, which makes it easier for people to understand the history of the note. Coins often come with ancient scripts that require specialised knowledge to understand.

The Todywallas offer a lifetime money-back guarantee and have recently started servicing the non-resident Indian market. As Kaizad Todywalla says, “There’s an expanding Indian Diaspora that are interested and affluent enough to be interested in Indian numismatic history.”

But it is in the auction business that the Todywallas have truly found their métier. Set up in 2003, Tody Auctions is India’s first and largest coin auction house, and has just completed its 48th auction. Kaizad remembers an auction from two years ago when a Rs. 5,000 note printed in 1960 was auctioned for Rs. 6 lakh. (High value notes of that period are hard to come by; Indira Gandhi had declared them void as a way of eliminating black money.) While coins appreciate 8–15 percent a year, Kaizad says he would be willing to pay Rs. 8 lakh for such a note. Still, he’s been unable to find another one.
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Image: Jayanta Shaw for Forbes India

Raj Kumar Sukhani
Location: Kolkata
Dealing In: Stamps
Since: 1970 (took over business from his father)

In this age of email and instant messages, no one seems to actually use stamps any more. But the hobby, needless to say, is still flourishing. In fact, the Internet has changed the business model for those who make it their profession. For one, dealers can now reach out to a larger set of potential customers. No longer do they have to personally travel to look at a stamp; scanned copies sent via email are enough to base a decision on.

Kolkata-based Raj Kumar Sukhani, who inherited his father’s stamps business when he was just 20, has now been trading for 30 years. In those days, he says, the market was a lot smaller than it is today. Unlike other collectibles, stamps are rarely sold through a network of middlemen. Sukhani has had to build up his own network of sources and buy old stamps directly from them. Usually when he gets in touch with a collector willing to sell, he tries to buy out the entire collection.

Like in 1993, when a collector from Bombay got in touch with him via telex. On reading a quick description of what was on offer, Sukhani caught the next available flight. He declines to name the collector, but says that the collection contained many 19th century stamps and first day covers. The icing on the cake: Several versions of the first lithograph stamps printed in Calcutta in 1854. After some negotiation, he struck a deal for Rs 150,000, a huge sum in those days.

Today, as with coins, there’s a lot of interest from NRIs which has driven up values. Sukhani has recently moved into the international market, with an eBay store. This has allowed him to forge relationships with overseas dealers; he says there is a lot of trading done in commemorative stamps or limited editions that governments issue from time to time.

Still, the manner in which the industry operates has hardly changed. Large collectors still expect dealers to make personal calls and advise them on how their investments are faring. “Stamp prices have gone up many times in the last three years,” says Sukhani, “as a lot of people in the software industry and call centres have become avid collectors.” These days, practically every town has a stamp dealer, a part-time dealer or an avid collector who steps into the shoes of a local dealer.

Ironically, as collecting has grown as a hobby, the number of avenues available for dealers to get these stamps has decreased. Not only are people using snail mail less, he says, but post office clerks urge people to use franking machines instead.

At present, he is very excited about the Red Scinde Dawk stamp. One of the earliest printed in British India, it comes from Sindh (‘Scinde’ and ‘Dawk’ are anglicised versions of ‘Sindh’ and ‘Dak’). Sukhani estimates that a Red Scinde Dawk in good condition would cost Rs. 12–15 lakh. “If I heard such a stamp is available I’d immediately take a flight.” Indian stamps used in British colonies are also in great demand. Before the British wound up their empire in Asia it was possible to use an Indian stamp to post letters from Sri Lanka, Malaya and places like Dubai in the Middle East. Stamps with clear postmarks from these places are particularly valued by collectors. From more recent times: In 1948 the Government of India released a commemorative set of four stamps on Gandhi. The stamps, with face values of 1.5 annas, 3.5 annas, 12 annas and 10 rupees, are now sold for Rs. 13,000 a set.

Earlier this year the government issued commemorative princely state stamps that have been a rage with collectors due to their design (some come in triangular, diamond shapes) and colour combinations.
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Sreedip Roy
Location: Kolkata
Dealing In: Jewelry
Since: Family has been in the jewelry trade for the last 10 generations

Old jewelry is triply valuable: There’s the intrinsic value of the materials; the value added by the craftsmanship; and then the age and rarity could raise the price many times over.
Sreedip Roy’s family has been in the trade for 10 generations. He has dealt in antique jewelry on the side, indulging the passion he has for old collectibles.

His grandfather, the late Shambhunath Roy, was jeweler to several aristocratic families, and would often be asked to buy antique jewelry from them. The Roys became known for their expertise when they were asked to construct a singhasan (throne) made of 2,000 kg of silver for an idol of the Singhabahini community. That throne has lasted for almost a century, and earned the Roys their trust.

Back in 2000, Roy bought a snuff box with intricate carvings made by French jewelers in the 1850s. He valued the gold alone at Rs. 50,000. After buying it for Rs. 100,000 he sold it for 40 percent more and managed to convince his father that he had cut his teeth in this trade.

For Roy, it is not finding the jewelry that takes up most of his time; it is distinguishing the genuine from the counterfeit pieces. He’s noticed a lot of counterfeit pieces of kundan jewelry from the Mughal period in the market. Basra pearls that come from Iraq are another commodity where counterfeits rule the roost.

There’s also a huge market for Indian jewelry in overseas market. Earlier, jewelers would go to foreign auction houses to sell their jewelry. They now go and seek their own buyers overseas. These relationships have been painstakingly built over the years. He’s attended jewelry exhibitions in USA and referred Indian clients to jewelers there, helping him build trust with dealers all around. Now, there is a lot of exchange of information among the jewelers themselves and they don’t always have to go through auction houses. The one thing that is important to his clients is confidentiality, he says. If you lose their  trust you’ve lost it all.