School in Punjab (Mayo School of Art) was opened at Lahore sometimes in the late nineteenth century, which earned reputation on account of the vision and work of John Lockwood Kipling, its founder Principal. Several items of wood crafts and art were also exhibited at Delhi when in 1903 as could be learnt from the Catalogue published after the event was over.13Only family schools in clusters such as at Kiratpur, Hoshiarpur, Saharanpur and Bhiwani in the northwest India and Chiniot, Bhera, Jhang and Lahore (all the latter four now in Punjab, Pakistan) were well known. Ganeshi and his two apprentice viz. Roop Ram of Sui village and Dulichand of Bhiwani city (1920- 1970) had earned great reputation in wood crafts that predominantly handled design and fabrication of door sets besides small household furniture. Specimens of their excellent workmanship still afford a fascinating view of the facade of traditional Indian mansions at Bhiwani and elsewhere, particularly Amritsar and Lahore. Kiratpur (now in Punjab Pakistan, adjacent to border) is a pilgrimage destination for the Sikhs, Chiniot in Multan is a traditional center of arts and crafts, Bhiwani in undivided east-Punjab abound in Hindu trading community which built about more than a 300 magnificent mansions in traditional Indian style architecture and patronized crafts persons whereas Saharanpur in northwestern Uttar Pradesh became famous during the Mughal era for its superb woodcrafts due to many artisans that had settled centuries ago, It retained reputation: from Saharanpur several wood craftsperson display and_ sell wares during Surajkund International Handicrafts Fair, held annually at Surajkund, dist. Faridabad. OCTOBER | 2019 | ART&DEAL In Haryana the wooden Peedha was instead given a coat of mustard oil mixed with plain water and applied at room temperature days before a festival or an impending social or religious ritual occurred. Therefore, Haryanvi people didn't bid farewell to Peedha, an iconic item of indigenous furniture of India despite the fact that the practice ceased long ago of offering it as matrimonial gift to daughter. It may not be out of place to make a mention of Peedha made of iron stripes fabricated by Lohars or blacksmiths. Stripes of various lengths were cut and riveted to structure a Peedha, which looked equally attractive in the face ofa wooden fabrication of similar item. During forging stripe-made Peedha acquired an intrinsic brownish-black tone, which by constant use became rusty. It looked as if the idea was translated from the cast iron foundries that manufactured furniture and brought into vogue in Britain and Europe after the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays, an occasional iron-stripe Peedha could be seen around in rural households of the Himalayan hill states and Haryana as relic. ‘A century ago when hand operated lathe was not in use in Haryana, the mofussil carpenter would first shape the front feet and foot-cum-post of a Peedha by peeling a column of wood and removing extra flab thereafter to realize desired shape. The plain surface ‘on the capital and sometime the girdles could be appropriately decorated for creation of floral buds and entwined creeper by chiseling with tiny hand tools. No unique or fresh motifs were required to decorate the posts and rear of the Peedha as the artisans already had an encyclopedic vision about our ancient art. It came to be noticed that most of the material i.e pre-1930s antique furniture, has already reached in the hands of the private collectors and commercial manufactures-cum-traders, which dealt in objects entirely of traditional indigenous design and character. It looked as if articles of indigenous furniture such as Peedha that could have minor or major art-work in carving could not have survived in sufficient numbers in homes in village communities in Haryana even for the purpose of scholarly investigation as listedS by Center for Environment Planning and Architecture (CEPT), Ahmadabad, a renowned institution & deemed University. Many old pieces probably perished when joint family were split and the object discarded as redundant or left to decay when the latticed seat worn out. The beauty of the hand-crafted Peedha and other household furniture was manifest in vocational ethics and standards wherein no two identical items could be mirror images. The web or lattice had plain or oblique cross-filling to show auspicious looking motifs or pattern in weave. The thread or string measuring three millimeter in thickness was made from the fiber of cotton or skin of jute plant that was grown in Bengal and to some extent in the north western provinces including the riparian districts in modern Haryana and Punjab at the time of the Kharif crop season and harvested before approach of the winter season. The string was hand-twisted, washed to bleach and again, 53