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January14
Having travelled widely over the past
20 years, HARRIET DIAS decided
to combine her hobby of collecting
priceless antiques, art and colonial
furniture with her Indian roots and hard
business skills. The result is
Treasures
of the Raj
, a stunning collection of
colonial furniture and antiques.
What brought you to Singapore?
Though I hail from Bombay, I am a
global citizen, having lived and worked
in the Middle East and Asia for 15
years. I’ve been here since 2003, when
my investment banker husband was
relocated to Singapore. Melwyn has
been a Singapore citizen for the past
eight years, and the rest of the family
are permanent residents. So we’re all
firmly rooted here!
What gave you the idea for this
business?
“The Raj” can be loosely defined as
the colonial period in Indian history –
British, Dutch, French and Portuguese,
known for its graceful European-style
furniture with local accents, made in
solid mahogany, teak or rosewood.
Given the fast-diminishing supply of
this quaint, period furniture and seeing
the plethora of copies and fakes that
are around, I have made it my mission
to restore and retail this furniture.
What makes your business
different?
In order to distinguish my business as
the “real deal” and set myself apart, I
do something that I believe no other
furniture business does in Singapore:
I undertake to buy back any piece of
furniture sold, at the end of three years,
at the price paid by the customer.
This is only possible because I know
the background of each piece and its
intrinsic value, given that it has been
painstakingly restored to protect its
unique personality, character and history.
Each piece comes with a Certificate of
Authentication that gives a brief history
of its provenance, a photograph of what
the piece looked like before and after
restoration; it also comes with a Buyback
Guarantee.
My goal is not to make old pieces
look new, because antique furniture
should be allowed to convey a sense of
its history and charm. When it comes to
antique furniture restoration, I follow the
dictum that less is more.
I undertake to buy back any
piece of furniture sold, at the
end of three years, at the price
paid by the customer
#3 Treasures of the Raj