The Evidence

An Art Deco emerald and diamond necklace, circa 1930. Old brilliant and single-cut diamonds (~8.80 carats), two large Mughal-carved emerald drops. Fitted case stamped: "Pohoomull Bros, Oriental Jewellers, Cairo, Egypt." Sold for £35,000.

A cream-coloured silk handkerchief with pale blue tassels, embroidered "Souvenir Of Egypt." Found with it: a business card for "Pohoomull Brothers, Oriental Merchants & Jewellers, Opposite Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo."

Indian embroidery and mirror work over resisted print heavy cotton, lined in silk shantung. Label reads: "Oriental Costumes & Textiles, Pohoomull Bros. Cairo Opp. Shepheard's Hotel." Condition: very good.

Chatamal Teerthdass vs. Pohoomul Brothers — "On June 12, 1902, a contract was executed at Hyderabad, Sindh, India, where the plaintiff agreed to enter the service of Pohoomul Brothers." The defendants were merchants doing business in Manila and other places in the Philippine Islands.

"A ring purchased from Pohoomull Brothers (India) in 1943. It is a scarab ring with carving of an Indian woman." Still being identified and appraised decades later.

The Algiers branch at 11 Rue Bab-Azoun operated an "Oriental Salon" with merchandise worth 3,000,000 francs. American writer Jessie Fauset, visiting in 1925–26, described proprietors offering "sweet, black Turkish coffee" alongside "pearls and sapphires, brasses and coppers, finely carved trays and vases, gorgeous incense burners."

"In 1936 there were 200 Sindhi merchants in Spanish Morocco and 100 in the Canary Islands. Pohoomull Bros was one of 'the big seven' Sindhi firms with branches in these territories, alongside D. Chellaram, J.T. Chanrai, and M. Dialdas."

"In 1887, Pohoomull Brothers applied to establish a shop in British-ruled Malta, marking the beginning of organised Sindhi commerce there. They are described as the predecessor of other Indian Maltese businesses."

Pohoomull Brothers — officially recognised in the Vintage Fashion Guild's international label database as a documented vintage fashion label.

The last surviving branch. Now an authorised retailer for Tissot, Oris, Versace, and Emporio Armani. Run by Renuka Nandwani (née Khiani), great-granddaughter of Moolchand Pohoomull. The shop has been open continuously since the 1890s.

"There were a few 'mother firms' from which the entire network sprang. The two most important of these 'mother firms' were the firm of Pohoomull Bros, created in 1858, from which a good part of the western branch of the network originated."

"The oldest was the firm of Pohoomull Brothers, which traced its origins to 1858. It was founded by four brothers of the Khiani family, one of whom, not the most active, was called Pohoomull, and the firm was named after him following the advice of the family pandit-astrologer."

"In 1911, an entry in a directory gave a list of twenty-two branches outside India: Cairo, Alexandria, Algiers, Tenerife, Las Palmas, Budapest, Karlsbad, Gibraltar, Malleija (Malta), Beira, Salisbury, Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Canton, China (?), Manila, Iloilo, Yokohama, Kobe and Kuala Lumpur. It was probably the largest of all the Sindwork firms in terms of turnover."

"Even among the six largest firms, there was a clear distinction between two subtypes: the 'global' firm, with branches across the world, of which D. Chellaram and Pohoomull Bros. were the two most conspicuous examples."

"Pohoomull Bros. was partitioned in 1932 between Pohoomull Bros. (India) which took over most of the branches in India and the Far East, and Pohoomull Bros. (Europe) which operated in the rest of the world."

"Cairo was the major entrepôt for Sindwork firms in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. Its role was particularly important prior the First World War, when Egypt still accounted for a large share of the global turnover of the Sindwork firms."

"Gibraltar was a major entrepôt for the entire western leg of the network. From their depots there, Sindwork firms supplied their retailing establishments in the whole of North Africa, the Canary Islands, and West Africa, and even, prior to the First World War, in Central and South America."

"Prior to the Spanish Civil War, there was a colony of around 100 Sindhi merchants in the Canary Islands, of whom 60 were in Tenerife, 35 in Las Palmas, and 5 in an unnamed island of the archipelago."

"A witness to the Bombay Provincial Banking Inquiry of 1930 stated that the firm of Pohoomull Bros was also engaged in it — 'Messrs Pohumal Brothers do remittance business while doing their work as merchants.'"

"A lot of money undoubtedly went into building palatial mansions in Hirabad, where the principals of the Sindwork trade had their residences. No wonder that Hyderabad was known as the 'little Paris' of Sind and gave travellers and officials an impression of wealth."

"During the First World War the chief postal censor in Sierra Leone complained to the War Office about the number of letters in Sindhi and Gujarati. He lamented the fact that nobody in the office could read them and that the only way he had found to enforce censorship rules was by detaining them until the following mail!"

"In 1899 both Pohoomull Bros and Wassiamall Assomull advertised themselves as manufacturers of silver embroidery, a traditional craft of Sind. This direct link to craft production snapped as the productions of Sind were replaced by those of other areas."

"At the end of his speech, the Tamil merchant, J.M. Abdul Aziz stood up and handed over to Bose a cheque of 25,000 piastres. The Sindhi merchants, Chotir Mal, Pohumal and Kimatrai promised a similar amount."

The Pohoomull family is named in this collection of select documents on Indian revolutionary activity abroad — direct documentary evidence of merchant funding for the independence struggle from overseas branches of the Sindwork network.

"It is probably in part to protect these economic interests that many Sindhi merchants in Southeast Asia gave their support to Subhas Bose and the Indian National Army."

"I the undersigned Fatumal Keumal Hindu aged 33 years of Hyderabad Sindh do hereby agree to enter the service of Messrs Pohoomull Brothers viz Mr Moolchand, Mr Lekhraj, Mr Sahijram sons of Khiamul on the following conditions…" — 10 October 1901. A second contract, dated 1905, binds a servant to serve "the said master at Cairo (Egypt) or any other part or place" for three years.