Carved Two Door Cabinet in Worn Jodhpur Blue

The colour on this almirah is the colour of Jodhpur. Anybody who has stood on the fort and looked down at the old city knows it, that blue on every wall of the old quarter and this is the same blue put onto an almirah the way our grandfather's generation put it on and then rubbed back so the wood underneath shows through at the corners and along the carving.

Where The Blue Comes From

In the old city the houses were washed with chuna, lime and neel was mixed into it to get the blue and the old people say some copper went in too because it kept the white ants and the insects off the walls in the heat. Whether that is the reason or the colour just looked good in the sun, every house did it and the furniture makers started doing it on the almirahs and the doors so that a piece looked like it belonged to the house. We make the blue the same way and put it on the same way, in coats and then take it back off with sand and a stone by hand until the piece looks like it has already stood in a haveli for 60 years. Each one comes out different because the rubbing back is done by eye.

• Solid wood, hand carved on both doors.
• Jodhpur blue, applied in coats and rubbed back by hand.
• 2 doors, diamond and flower panels, small centre panels.
• Cornice on top, plinth base.
• Made in our workshop in Jodhpur.

The Carving On The Doors

Each door carries 4 carved panels and the pattern on them is the one used on the old haveli doors, a diamond with a flower in the middle, a round flower on it's own and a small square with a rosette and that pattern has not changed because it is the pattern the karigar learnt as a boy from the man who taught him. The carving comes first and the paint last and that order is what makes the carving show through the colour, because the blue sits down in the cuts and the rubbing back brings the wood out on the high parts. You can see the carving from across the room even under the colour and that is the whole reason for doing it in that order.