Provenance: Provenance: An old family from Tondo and Tambobong

ABOUT THE WORK

The crest of this breathtaking split–timber/bookmatched Manila aparador in the late neoclassical style is the traditional marquetry of garlands with interspersed flowers and leaves interpreted in lanite wood set on narra wood panels topped with kamagong wood moldings, with small urns also in kamagong accentuating the two rounded corners in front. The bottom sections of the narra panels are decorated with a succession of lozenges enclosed at the top and bottom by line inlay, all of lanite. In this rare example of the Filipino cabinetmaker’s art, there is the notable inclusion of the Imperial Hapsburg Double–Eagle emerging from a flower at the center of the garlands. From the crest, on both sides of the cabinet, descend a pair of finely articulated columns in dark kamagong wood with stylized acanthus leaf capitals on truncated balusters, a reeded middle section, all of which terminate with similar shortened balusters on top of lotiform feet inlaid with lanite wood. The top of the main section of the cabinet is a concave molding of kamagong wood with its plain upper section decorated by a succession of lozenges enclosed at the top and bottom by line inlay, all of lanite wood. Below the moldings are the two spectacular split–timber/bookmatched narra wood doors --- the grain of the left door artfully meeting the grain of the right door in a triangular arrangement --- all framed by molded kamagong. The narra panels are further enhanced with raised vertical neoclassical panels with inverse C–scroll corners accentuated by precise line inlay of lanite. There is a cartouche of solid silver (80%) for the keyhole on the right door. Inside, there are four alternating levels of shelves and two drawers with wooden pulls all in narra, atypical from the usual arrangement of two shelves with a center level of two drawers in the interior common to most Filipino cabinets produced from 1825–1850. Both sides of the cabinet casing also have spectacular split– timber/bookmatched narra wood panels, artfully installed. The left side has its grain rising to the right, and the right side has its grain inversely rising to the left. Four vertical panels of narra form the back of the cabinet. Below the doors is an inverted triangular apron in kamagong wood framed by line inlay of lanite wood decorated in the center with marquetry of an urn with unfurling flowers and leaves, all in lanite. The cabinet is supported by four lotiform feet of kamagong inlaid with stylized lotus forms in lanite. True to the late neoclassical style, the cabinet possesses the attributes of order, balance, and restraint. This singular Manila aparador in the late neoclassical style with spectacular split–timber/bookmatched narra doors and casing is the only one known to exist. There is another split–timber/ bookmatched aparador in an important Manila collection, but it is resolutely Victorian and completely different in style. The only other Manila aparador with the Imperial Hapsburg Double–Headed Eagle motif in marquetry known to exist, aside from this, was a splendid example from a prominent Spanish mestizo family sold at The Gilded Age Exhibition of the Leon Gallery in July 2016. This type of late neoclassical cabinet was termed “Manila” in origin by Filipiniana authority Ramon N Villegas and by leading antique dealer and Manila’s “romancer of wood” Osmundo Esguerra because it was usually found within the confines of the metropolis, although interestingly, many examples were also found in the Ilocos region (perhaps they were widely sold there through the river trade or there were Manila–trained craftsmen in Ilocos workshops). The style was derived mainly from American Federal furniture with elements from English Regency and German Biedermeier. From the mid–1800s to the prewar, this type of cabinet was usually found in the holdings of early prominent families like the Tuason–Legarda– Prieto–Valdes, the Roxas–de Ayala–Zobel–Soriano, and the Roxas–Zaragoza–Araneta–Infante–Preysler clans. This cabinet comes from an interesting, old Filipino family from Tondo and Tambobong. It is a family that has bred hacenderos, revolutionary heroes of 1896, government officials, technocrats, entrepreneurs, as well as, improbably enough, World War II guerrillas, Hukbalahap rebels, university activists, labor leaders, revolutionaries, Socialists, and Marxists/ Communists.