Go Auctioning at Russell Street

Umang Sharma

Auctions have always been a significant part of trade and Calcutta which started as a trading post of the British had a thriving business in auctioning, whether it was opium, indigo or tea. The auction houses in the city, growing out of this rich tradition of auctioning, were hence located on prime areas and the rich and powerful thronged them for antiques to add to their burgeoning collection. Till 1980s, the auction houses did good business as palatial houses of individuals gave way to apartment culture and hence they could get a steady supply of products looked upon as mere junk as space shrunk. But in the 1980s, poor business forced eight of the city’s 11 auction houses to shut shop. The rest have survived the scare and just scraped through. Noted film director, Satyajit Ray often hunted for furniture and antiques during the filming of his period movies.

Calcutta’s earliest known auction house, Mackenzie Lyall & Co., set up in the 19th century and known once for its opium auctions, did close down. Others, like Stainer & Co., Dalhousie Exchange, Chowringhee Sales Bureau Pvt. Ltd and D Albert & Co., too downed shutters between 1985 and 2005.  Thankfully, one of the first auction houses to have opened in Calcutta and still doing brisk business is Russell Exchange. It has been with the family since 1940, when it had changed hands. Spread across a respectable 5,000 square feet, period furniture, cut glass items and antique lampshades crowd the floor. Sundays see quite a good crowd thronging the Russell Exchange. A minimum of two hundred items are auctioned in the exchange run by Arshad Salim, his brother Anwer Saleem and sister, Sarfaraz Begum Shamsi. In a documentary by British filmmaker Ed Owles, The Auction House: A Tale of Two Brothers, Arshad Salim asserted that everything is for sale at their shop.

Next to Russell Exchange is Modern Exchange, which looks more like a warehouse. It is smaller in terms of floor area than the former and does not hold auctions regularly. However, it has antique items and a lot of knick knacks that are markedly not of antique value. From glass bowls to disfigured porcelain dolls or cheap glass chandeliers, the place has it all. Diagonally opposite to Russell Exchange, is Suman Exchange which has 2,000 square feet of floor area, mostly filled with furniture.  Auctions in Suman Exchange are usually held from half past twelve in the afternoon on Sundays.

Modern Exchange has been doing business for nearly 100 years. “The situation has worsened over the last few years. More than buying vintage artifacts, the patrons are mostly people looking at a re-sale of their original purchases and are mostly businessmen.” said Saikat De, proprietor of Modern Exchange.

Supply
Items sold at the auction houses are procured from households when the owners relocate or prefer to dispose the old ones for new items. According to Amit Das, a regular seller, “It is comparatively easier to sell your items instantly at these auction houses even in the days of Quikr and Olx”. However, antique items rarely come to auction houses these days. When some actual vintage curio do turn up, the prospective patrons are notified. Saikat said: “If antique furniture or any other artifact comes in, we give an advertisement in the newspaper and inform prospective buyers.”

Profit Margins

The auction houses charge sellers of various items 25 per cent of commission and two per cent of service tax. The seller may fix up a reserve price which is the least price he wishes to sell at the auction.

The goods are kept on display and put up on auction for two consecutive weeks. After two weeks if the item remains unsold and if the seller still wants the good to remain at the exchange then has to pay a rental.

The price of items varies from INR 10 and may range up to INR 2,000 generally. Rare artifacts can fetch even INR 1 lakh for the auctioneers, though rarely.  Once upon a time, stamps and coins were very popular at auction houses and in the past, auctioning of clothes was popular particularly when sarees were woven in pure gold or silver.

View Day
The products are open for viewing to prospective buyers on Fridays and Saturdays. On the day of viewing, a number sticker with a date of auction is pasted on items up for bidding. This helps the buyer to jot down the product number and also examine the product closely before bidding for the same during auction.

Bidding Process
A product on bid may have a reserve price fixed by the seller or may be without any minimum price. The price gradually increases with eager bidders calling out their prices. When it reaches a point where no other bidder is ready to bid, the hammer falls and the deal is sealed. The bidder has to pay 50 per cent upfront to the exchange and the balance amount must be cleared before the good is dispatched from the exchange.

Expert auctioneers often use various adjectives to allure the bidders with their description of the piece. As Anwar Saleem of the Russell Exchange said, “By auctioning, we give these objects a new life with a new owner.” Once the item is bought, it is cleared out from the exchange by the very next Thursday, after the full payment is made. All goods that are sold at the auction, are sold on ‘as is where is’ basis and are considered to be final sales.  Should any dispute arise between two or more bidders, the lot in question is put up again for a last undisputed bidding.

Bidders
Sandip Mallick, a regular bidder at the Russell Exchange buys decorative items for his home and never misses out on the Sunday auction. Mallick often bids for rare porcelain, glass and wooden antique items. He advises that when the product is pitched for a higher price than its worth, then the bidder should quietly back off. Another regular, S P Ganguly participates in auctions to buy furniture for his home. Ganguly considers buying from auction houses, as one gets a reliable item at an affordable price. A bidder, Lalit Choudhury got a sofa set for INR 7,200 which would have cost him around INR 40,000 in the market.

Patrons
Production houses often buy commodities for props in films and plays from auction houses. Young buyers also flock during auction to buy antiques to decorate their houses. Anwar Saleem confided, “The business was going down due to long periods of lockdown, but things look positive now. In fact, the last few months have seen a good upsurge in the demand for auctioned goods.” Nowadays, you get to see a lot of businessmen and people from the film fraternity regular visiting the auction houses. Arshad Salim added that bidding is also kind of addiction to many.