Overhauling a Vintage item

We have a conversation starter at home now.  A rare one at it. Its right there on the coffee table as a center piece and none misses it. I take every opportunity to tell anyone who is willing to listen, or otherwise, about how it came to be.

During our recent trip to J’s tharavad in a pristine village called Vellarvally, Kerala, J chanced upon some household items that he had seen and used as a child, stashed away  in a storeroom, where they keep all and sundry. 

Overcome by nostalgia or whatever the emotion was, he brought some of them to Chennai. I was surprised and a bit annoyed, initially,  at the junk,  that found way to our home, simply to add to the clutter. Looking at it, I thought it was made of iron, but J disagreed vehemently. But then a sudden brainwave asked me why not get it polished and use it as a show-piece at home. 

I am going to be done with the suspense of what it is and here is a picture of what J brought home which I thought was a piece of trash.

Cut to the chase, the Vintage Iron box, after an extensive lacquer polishing, looks like this now.  Yep.   

Doesn’t it look as if it is just out of Jeweler's shop rather than from an attic? Apparently, it is made of brass as J kept saying.

Joe’s brother-in-law who recently visited us could not believe it was the same coal iron box he must have seen at the tharavad many years ago.

As though I have given it a new lease of life, which otherwise would never have seen the light of a day. Every astonished look makes me feel proud about salvaging junk (at least what I thought it was) into a piece of treasure.