Memory Keepers and Future Seekers: An excerpt from a book on heritage homes in Goa
Lit by the incandescent glow of opulent Belgian crystal chandeliers; ornate gilded mirrors reflect rooms filled with antique furniture in dark maple, rosewood and Burma teak; rich textiles; family photographs and portraits; long tables laden with custom made fine porcelain from Macau, Japan and China in the distinctive Figueiredo family colours of orange and gold; an upright piano in one corner; an entire set of silverware gifted by King João the V of Portugal in 1740; ornamental objets d’art with touches of ebony, ivory, mother of pearl, gold filigree, jade, turtle shell and lapis lazuli; elaborate escarradores or tobacco spittoons; intricate cabinets from Indonesia and Malaysia and other accumulations of lives lived over 450 years. The mirrors at Figueiredo Mansion look out over a world that is at once familiar, that seems to have always been there, and at once different. Located in Loutolim, a languid village by the Zuari river in the Salcete taluka of South Goa district of the state of Goa in India, the aristocratic home of the massive land holding Figueiredo …
