Couturier Rohit Bal has put his heart and soul into his crystalware collection. This is one gift of legacy you should consider. By Rinku Ghosh
The artiste in Rohit Bal loves looking at a crystal ball. Not for looking into the future though. An avid student of history and a classicist in mind, Bal is rescuing a glorious past of Europe and threading it into our future with an Indian leitmotif. Yes, he has unfurled an unparalleled range of signature crystalware and shown that an Indian has a comparable sense of global luxury too.
“Yet it was all there as part of our being. Didn’t we grow up with the lovely crystal jug that our grandmother kept on a crochet matIJ I was fascinated by stained glass windows and Belgian mirrors all along. I have travelled high and low to get a sense of our luxurious living traditions, which linked civilisations. I have seen the relics in the old mansions of Calcutta. I have been collecting crystals and glass for as long as I can remember and so when an opportunity came my way to design a collection, I went ahead. And I am proud of what has come out because this has literally been a labour of love,” Bal tells us, walking us past his displays at Bikaner house. Anybody who knows the generous host that he is will remember how particular he is about serving the right wine in the right crystalware at his home. Even if it means searching high and low and turning the house down. And yes he has the best of the world, from the jewel-encrusted to the coloured, from the simple-elegant to the baroque, in his possession.
So when he met Anton Matulcik from Slovakia, a former diplomat turned private businessman keen on rescuing the glassware factories of his country, things fell into place. long-time friend Omer Haider from Showhouse joined hands and the deal was sealed. Matulcik, who had served in India, knew that this was an emerging market along with the high-spending Indian diaspora. He realised that the crystal line would find takers in the ever-expanding wedding and luxury market. He just needed an Indian grammar.
The two partners indulged Bal’s creativity, who has a nose for perfection, be it as a designer, artist, revivalist, book lover or even a food connoisseur (yes, he can scent out pine nuts in a soup just as sharply he can rate a wine). Most importantly, they tapped into his innate Indianness. Each item on display — from wine glasses, champagne flutes, whisky decanters, tea cups, vases, urns, platters, salvers and fruit bowls — has his trademark lotus, engraved, etched and plated.
Bal travelled for two years in Slovakia and Czech Republic, making Bratislava his temporary home. Over three weeks, he visited factories which produce the world’s best quality crystal, hand-cut and hand-crafted. “I sat and saw through every single piece of my collection, from glass-blowing to finish,” the artiste told us, learning every detail and acquiring all-new skills.
“Crystal with at least 24 per cent lead has a higher refractive index and reflects more light than glass. Crystal is also easier to engrave, producing a flat decoration, or cut, which gives a three-dimensional effect. You may wonder that the geometric diamond cuts are done by some tool and machine but all the craftsmen did were swing the globular glass from side to side. They seemed to know the arc, the angle of the tilt and the rhythm of the hand motion genetically. Every cut comes with a mathematical precision. You cannot beat thousands of years of tradition. And these were women doing it,” Bal tells us excitedly, his eyes gleaming with passion.
Crystalware originated in Bohemia in northern Czechoslovakia at the time of the Celts, about 2,000 years ago. It gained industry level momentum in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the last 40 years, cristalleries extended into Slovakia, the southern republic. “Now there are about 12 to 15 factories,” Matulcik tells us.
The gold and platinum edges and bases of vases are the purest that can be. “I saw how they got a raised gilding, the glossy golden and the matte effect by firing and re-firing in the crucible. And at unbelievably high temperatures, the pure essence of gold sort of gets infused in the crystal itself, as if the most precious core of the metal is sealed in for posterity,” Bal says, recalling his days of sitting for hours at kilns. He has even innovated with the traditional cuts and engravings, breaking the similarity by hand-painting lotus on glass.
So taken in is Bal by his latest creations that he designed the inverted gaslight-type casings for display, even the stands. In the focussed soft lights, the scalloped edges rise and fall in tiny waves, the facets bounce off each other’s reflection, lending a depth and density to each piece. The lotus laces up the edges, cascades as a stringy mass on glass and makes a bold statement with each petal, ridged and curved, in a giant bowl.
The straight-lined single-blown wine glasses (without joins) are a steal, regal and contemporary at the same time.
Come to think of it, perhaps crystalware would not have gone to eccentric extremes had it not been for India. Baccarat, which relied almost exclusively on commissions from royalty, nobility and heads of state, made a gargantuan chandelier for the Maharaja of Gwalior. He commissioned the piece first, then built an entire palace around it, simply to show it off. When the ceiling collapsed, he called for it to be rebuilt, this time testing its strength first by suspending an elephant from it!
Bal is a purist, not an eccentric and believes in luxury being a part of everyday life, no matter how small. So he has a pret line of wine and punch glasses, flutes and tableware alongside his couture line of statement pieces. They have 10 per cent lead. “Each piece has been made by a single person and the intricate ones have taken up to a month. Nevertheless I have priced a priceless effort,” the designer tells us. His heart is in the right place. The best partIJ He does it at an individual level. Without waiting for anybody.