Your Complete Guide to Indian Antiques
If you love India, then you may want to start collecting Indian antiques. While you can find many antique items for sale in India, you do not need to travel as you can find many of these items for sale on eBay. With so many different categories of Indian antiques on eBay, you're sure to find an inexpensive piece that interests you.
Different categories of Indian antiquesThere are many unique types of Indian antiques that you might want to consider collecting, including:
- Decorative textiles - There are many unique subcultures in India. Each has its type of decorative textiles.
- Jewelry - Artists have created antique jewelry pieces from gold, silver, platinum, copper, iron, and aluminum. You can easily find a piece of used antique Indian jewelry.
- Art - With many regional differences, it is easy to form a fascinating collection of antique art from India.
- Weapons - There are many distinctive antique weapons found across India. In particular, you can find many distinctive swords, including firangis, patas, kukris, and khandas.
- Furniture - There are many antique furniture pieces available from India.
The many immigrants to India each brought their art to the country with them. These styles intermingled with art practices that Indian residents were already perfecting. Therefore, many parts of India have their folk art style. These include:
- Madhubani art - Also called Mithila painting, these brightly colored art pieces were done in the Nepal region using natural-dyed paints. The paintbrush was then made with items found in nature. Most pieces show the relationship between people and their natural surroundings.
- Miniature paintings - Antique items for sale on eBay often include miniature paintings. These paintings that are often from the Rajasthan area show people with large eyes, pointed noses, and slim waists interacting with a deity.
- Phad - Originating in the Rajasthan region, these 15- to 30-foot cloth scrolls show the deeds of a deity with Pabuji or Devnarayan being common choices.
- Warli - Created with vegetable dyes, these stamped fabric creations show man's daily interaction with nature. Humans are always represented as two triangles and a circle.
- Gond - Revived during the 1960s using acrylic paints, antique Gond art was created using cow dung, charcoal, and leaves. Each creation shows an animal or flora created using only dashes and small circles.
Many regional differences exist in the type of antique metalwork available from India. From the Kashmir region, you can find oxidized and highly embossed kitchen items made from copper and silver. Artisans in Uttar Pradesh are famous for their electroplated white metal kitchen items that are often highly embossed. Numerous antique sculptures depicting the Jain religion come from the Gujarat region. In the Andhra Pradesh, many antique pieces from India were made by combining molten zinc and copper and pouring it into a mold. Once set, the mold was removed, and grooves were etched into the item's surface. Then, artists filled the grooves with silver.