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Walking in a garden of images
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This is no ordinary house. It doubles up as an exclusive museum with some of the largest collections of crystals. And the garden boasts of exquisite plants and flowers from all over the world. CHANDY JOHN takes a jaunt through this colourful world.
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NEAR A once bustling canal of Alappuzha town is a house filled with exquisite antiques and artefacts that would do any museum proud. And there is a well-laid out garden that boasts some exquisite plants and flowers too.
The museum features hand painted Herrand plates, Meissen porcelain, Christian figures by the noted Israeli Jew Sam Philips, awe-inspiring, intricately carved ivory work, Tanjore paintings and crystals from all over the world, among other things. But the apple of Betty Karunakaran's eye is clearly her Swarovski crystal collection. As she explains: "It is probably the single largest collection of Swarovski crystals in the world.''
Mrs. Karunakaran has been a member of the Swarovski Collector's Society since its inception when there were 250 members. "Now there are 400,000 members,'' she adds. Not surprisingly, she is both widely travelled and a frequent traveller. Though most of her collection is from Europe, exhibits from all over the world grace her panelled cupboards.
She has an interesting anecdote to relate about a particular exhibit in her Sam Philips collection. "We had been to Israel and met Sam Philips, who is regarded as one of their foremost craftsmen. I really liked one of his figurines, but he was unwilling to part with it as he had already sold the remaining six pieces and destroyed the mould. This was until I told him we were from near Kochi and he was delighted as his relative had just married a Jewess who was brought up in Kochi.''
Another part of the collection, that she is particularly fond of, is the Meissen porcelain, which she says is the most exclusive porcelain in the world. Her Capo De Monte Italian porcelain figurines are so exclusive that no two pieces are alike. The crystals are from Italy, erstwhile Czechoslovakia, Germany, Belgium and Turkey and of crystal ware there is Lalique, Daum, Baccarat, Waterford, Tiffany and Swarovski to name a few.
As you sit back and enjoy a refreshingly cold lemon and milk juice, she explains that the furniture you are sitting on is antique ebony; the rug under your feet is an exquisitely hand-woven gift and on the Italian Sorranto table sits a French Lalique crystal that is coveted the world over. So it's no surprise when she informs youthat the bar has a collection of around 3,000 types of liquor from all over the world.
Though she has built up the larger part of the collection in the past 43 years, part of it has also been handed down three generations of the family.
Typically, she is forced to turn down most of the requests that flood in for a tour of this veritable museum. But when Mrs. Karunakaran decides to pay heed, she takes great care to distinguish between the Armanis and the Tiffanys or the Waterfords and Daums among her exhibits.
She explains her passion: "Everybody has his or her own interests. Some people travel often, but you will not find even an ashtray in their house. Its an inborn interest, not cultivated.''
All the exhibits featured in the house are tastefully displayed in well-lit rooms. The visual treat starts at the verandah, with the Tanjore paintings, the old panels mounted on silk, murals painted with natural vegetable dyes and the Ravi Varma imitations. Mrs. Karunakaran explains that many years ago she had declined an offer of original Ravi Varma paintings that were up for sale by a celebrity.
Mrs. Karunakaran, who hates modern art and bonsai, also spends a lot of time in her garden where begonias sprout like lettuce leaves and Hawaiian hibiscuses bloom in very rare colours. Just like the house, the garden features plants from all over the world from Trinidad to Sikkim and Sri Lanka to Holland. The house is surrounded by sago palms, a delightfully pruned bottlebrush tree, coconut palms from Sri Lanka and the Andamans, a magnolia tree and air ferns from the U.S.A, jasmines from Spain, anthuriums and orchids from around the world and numerous other exotic flora.
According to this avid gardener, "The bird nest fern can be grown only under laboratory conditions, but I have successfully multiplied them here. I also have a collection of very rare ferns and the rare Phaelonopsis orchid that blooms for three to four months every year and has to be kept under cover as even a day's rain can destroy it.''
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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