About Us

Mr Chandra

The mystical craft of carpet-weaving. The sheer aura of a beautifully woven carpet and the exquisite feel it can lend to any interior space... More than any other craft or art form, carpets have survived the onslaught of industrialization. What began as a nomadic craft ages ago, still continues, among some tribes as well as in mechanized factories the world over. The folklore attached to an antique oriental carpet, the very graphic visual impact of a kilm, or the cadence of a Mughal piece from the India…. Carpets today are in a greater demand than ever.

Meeting just this aesthetic need and re-creating the regalia of the past is The Carpet Cellar, a specialty studio for the finest woven treasures, conceived of and put together by India’s most respected curator of carpets Mr Sheel Chandra. A Mecca for not just certified antiques but also their near rarer copies so perfectly reproduced that only a collector could decipher the difference .At the Carpet Cellar one can witness a range of hand woven & hand knotted masterpieces. Carefully selected and acquired for their uniqueness and brilliant draught-man ship for over 3 decades by a single man Mr. Chandra and re-interpreted The Carpet Cellar invites the connoisseur to experience the sheer luxury at his feet.

Mr. Chandra’s collection at the Carpet Cellar reveals a range of styles and designs that the word oriental carpet stands for. Representing the culture of a vast area stretching from the black sea eastward to China including Mongolia, The erstwhile Soviet Union, Tibet, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, Baluchistan and India as well as Egypt & Morocco.

The Carpet Cellar is the place where you can see the effects of socio-economic developments affecting the weaving tradition of a region.

Infact, adopting other schools of weaves in wool, The Carpet Cellar goes beyond to the realm of the shawl, the doshala, the throw and other woven renditions in wool.

Distinguished by the different motifs, color combinations, styles of knotting, warp, weft etc., each carpet represents the weaving tradition of a particular tribe or center and all of them are hand knotted and mostly vegetable dyed. The style of knotting whether Persian or Turkish and the superior quality of raw materials used ensures that the rugs get better with usage, while the use of natural dyes by secret techniques using berries, plants, fruit, bark, fungi and in some rare pieces – crushed insects allows for colors that not only stay fast but give a pleasing harmonious effect unequalled by chemical dyes.

Often borrowed by leading museums from around the world for exhibitions, Mr. Sheel Chandra’s collection of carpets is unique each in its own way , with its own subtlety & complexity. Thus, while some carpets represent gardens to remind the user of the pleasures paradise, or of spring, the others kept the floor warmer in winter, some depict hunting scenes, floral & animal motifs and geometrical & lattice patterns. There are still others with verses found in borders, culled from works of leading poets or composed by unknown writers for a particulars carpet.

Whatever the dreams of the craftsmen or the reasons for which these rugs were woven which range from trade, dowry, prayer, commissioning by aristocratic or a simple need to cover a tent floor, each piece is most handsomely designed and conceived from the finest classic carpets of the Safaina period in Persia, to the wonderful varieties and charming textures of the Mughal Indian carpets to further still the kilms, saddlebags ,textiles and ornamentation of camels & horses during ceremonial occasions.

The Carpet Cellar is a rare representation of the art of oriental weaving at its best and is the largest personal one of its kind in India .