Furniture and Other Woodwork

The Parsi skill of woodwork is evident when one observes the furniture in a traditional Parsi home, especially in Gujarat. Earlier the woodwork of most Parsi homes consisted of customised designs usually executed by Parsi carpenters. Most furniture pieces were made of Burma teakwood.

The history of Parsi furniture with its distinctive carvings again shows cross-cultural links. An amalgam of South Indian rosewood carving techniques with Chinese, Portuguese and Gujarati wooden designs, this distinctive art form and detailed carving method needs historical study and research. Parsi homes still contain distinctive furniture with glazed tiles, which reveal Iranian links. Much of this furniture is in need of restoration as well as protection to prevent it being taken out of this country.

In the Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency, 1877, ten Parsi families are counted as working in the craft, along with several Hindu families. A Catalogue shows us Framjee Pestonjee Bhumgara’s stall at the Universal exhibition, Paris, 1855, as well as gives us the names of some of the designs. While the origins of this craft were forgotten, the names of the designs have remained in memory, and in carved objects in wood for example Kharodia (spider flower), Surajmukhi (sunface or sunburst), Dora (thread), phul (border of flowers), ek dana (border of seeds) etc. The Suraj Mukhi was one of the most popular designs in Parsi cupboards, occasionally accompanied by a portrait of Prophet Zarathushtra in wood.

In carpentry, Parsis, especially the Surtis, also practised the craft of marquetry or what is locally known as Sadeli work. Sadeli refers to a decorative technique that commonly uses geometric patterns. This craft is said to have been brought to India from Persia by the Parsis. Sadeli work is a type of micro-mosaic and sandalwood carving coming together to create a line of Pettigara craftsmanship. The Pettigara petis were intricately carved, sometimes with stories from the Indian epics, as well as the Shahnameh. When we look at the inlay and marquetry work of Iran and Syria, one can trace a thread of continuity in this craft from very ancient times. In Persia, camel bone was used instead of the ivory and later deer horn chips, used in the Indian inlay tradition. In Iran, brass was used in the making of these boxes, while India used silver and later tin.

The entire Pettigara tradition stretches from Surat to Bombay, areas which were Parsi settlements. Parsis who trained artisans to execute Sadeli and sandalwood carving principally owned Sadeli workshops. These boxes were exported to Europe in considerable quantities; the Catalogue of the Vienna Universal Exhibition of 1873 mentions that a handful of Sadeli boxmakers brought over 750 examples of their work, while in London, at Liberty & Co., these were advertised in their Catalogues of 1884 and 1898. The names of the contributors to the Vienna Exhibition include Framjee Heerje, Rustomjee Cavusjee, Framjee Partonjee, Vasujee Munchurjee, Framjee Heerjebhoy, Jemshetjee Shapoorjee and Damodhus Manek. Over the years it was picked up by their Hindu brethren and some of them, like Parsis, took on their surnames from their profession of making petis in this fashion and, like their Parsi teachers, came to be known as Pettigaras.