Provenance: Private Collection, Makati City

ABOUT THE WORK

The salakót is a traditional wide-brimmed Philippine hat often made of either rattan and is a Filipino traditional headdress similar to the iconic conical hat found in neighbouring Southeast and East Asian countries. Though normally worn by farmers, wealthy and landed Christian Filipinos and mestizos, especially the members of the ruling class called the Principalía, began embellishing their hats. Some made their salakót of more prized materials like cow horn or tortoise shell and adorned it with an ornate capping spike crafted in silver or even gold. Scattered over the surface of the headgear were embossed and chased silver plaques of varying sizes, while around the rim were hung pendants consisting of silver coins or beads. Many depictions of town mayors aka gobernadorcillos and cabezas de barangay or village headmen would portray these colonial public functionaries as wearing ornate salakots. This particular salakot is made of very finely woven rattan topped by an attenuated urn-shaped finial standing on a very wide silver cap. The inner register of the cap is highly embossed and chased with a swirling gadroon pattern that is surrounded by another, larger border. The middle register consists of a plain silver band edged with a narrow plain molding on either side. Around it is a narrow rope molding and a wide pierced border of ogive curves containing a repetitive frieze of symmetrical leaf sprays. Appliqued halfway down the salakot are four elongated lozenges that resemble stylized flower pots containing embossed and chased stylized flower and leaves as well as flower buds with pistils. Around the lower part of the hat are eight large symmetrical leafy C-scrolls emanating from a flower with three petals. The bottom of the salakot is decorated with a series of silver bosses. The salakot is in very good condition with the straps and toggel s still completely intact. -Martin I. Tinio, Jr.