(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Auctions of rare Qatari antiques are held at Souq Waqif every Friday. But this is nothing new. The tradition dates back to pre-oil, pearl-diving days when the souq was the hub of nearly all trading activities in the country, says a community elder.
Souq Waqif, as we know, is an old souq reincarnated a decade ago and has today emerged as one of major tourist attractions.
In the olden days - in the 1930s until the 1980s - people would bring to the souq just about anything to sell. It was a trading hub.
"If a dhow had turned old and had been broken, its wood would be brought here for sale. The buyer would use it in house-building," said Qatari Hassan Al Jefairi. "People would get just about anything from dry to salted fish to cooking vessels, for example, to the souq for sale in the good old days," he said.
In his early 60s, Al Jefairi has seen Qatar's journey from a laidback country of seafarers and pearl-divers to one of the world's richest. Old paintings, items of art and craft, old and rare photographs, jewellery and watches and utensils are some of the antiques sold in auctions at the souq.
"Qataris are collectors of rare antiques. They are fond of such things. Their passion began particularly after the early 1970s when a sudden gush of wealth due to steep oil price rise made people rich," said Al Jefairi.
Specially in demand among Qatari antiques are the two types of wooden boxes - Bishtakhta and Mobaiyyad - both made of teakwood. Bishtakhta is a small box which ship captains used to carry in the olden days to keep pearls and a weighing device.
Mobaiyyad is a bigger box with four round-shaped supports at the bottom used for safekeeping of cash, gold, jewellery and other valuables at home.
These boxes were popular in the old days, were a work of craft and mostly brought from India. In auctions these antiques can fetch a lot of money, said Al Jefairi.
Other antiques include old paintings, mostly of two peacocks facing each other. "These paintings, also from India, were so popular that in the olden days most Qatari homes had them."
And, then, there were wall clocks with a human hand-shaped pendulum. Some also had two peacocks on top facing each other.
"My great grandfather, Ibrahim Al Jefairi, as captain of a ship in the good old days, brought these expensive teakwood boxes from India."
According to Al Jefairi, a Bishtakhta then cost about 50 Indian rupees.
The Indian currency was in circulation in Qatar at the time and until the early 1960s.
An idea of the value of Rs50 at the time can be had from the fact that for a large Qatari family, a rupee would suffice to buy food requirements for a week, claimed Al Jefairi.
From a Qatari seafarers' family which was in the thriving pearl trade and rich and prosperous, Al Jefairi said after the discovery of oil his family actually became poor.
Qatari pearls were in high demand due to quality in the pre-oil days of pearl-diving but the industry fell on bad days after Japan popularised cultured pearls in the 1940s and India stopped import and export of Qatari pearls in the wake of World War II, he said.
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