Provenance: : A gentleman collector

ABOUT THE WORK

by AUGUSTO MARCELINO REYES GONZALEZ III This pair of solid silver candeleros has oversized candle stands, silver wax guards supported by goblets placed on top of graceful, elongated urns with discreet “ysot” prickwork decorations of leaves on their upper sections. The lower sections are decorated with chased reeding topped by small acanthus leaves. The turned baluster bases of the urns stand on curved hexagonal plinths which straddle the ornate, triangular, convex main bases of the candeleros. These are decorated in their central sections with chased trellised cartouches of stylized pineapples topped by intertwined “palmeros” leaves, also chased. The sides are also decorated with palmeros leaves. A series of small acanthus leaves wrap around the bases. The ensembles presage the design and construction of the smaller solid silver “paliteras”/“palilleras” toothpick holders which started appearing on affluent dining tables from the second quarter of the 1800s onwards. This pair of candeleros comes from the Augustinian territory of Central Luzon. Each candelero is composed of several parts --- candle stand, wax guard, goblet, urn, stand, plinth, triangular base --- and there is a metal rod and a bolt inside secured by a triangular wooden block that keeps it together. Two metalworking techniques which were used to decorate it are the ancient “ysot” (quick, expert prickwork with a pick), and repousse (hammering to relief from the reverse side). These candleholders of Mexican silver 80% stood on the two “gradillas” levels of traditional, pre–Vatican II Catholic altars, three on either side of the tabernacle alternating with three “ramilletes” (artificial flower bouquets in paper, silk, or silver). The traditional ensemble totaled twelve candleholders and twelve “ramilletes” on the two levels of the altar. The Augustinians were the first religious order to arrive in the islands. The veteran navigator Fray Andres de Urdaneta landed with four other friars in Cebu on April 1565 --- Martin de Rada, Diego de Herrera, Pedro de Gamboa, and Andres de Aguirre. They set up base in the first Spanish settlement established by the Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, on the site of the burnt hut where the statuette of the Santo Nino presented by Magellan to Rajah Humabon’s wife Juana in 1521 was discovered, and proceeded with the evangelization of the natives. Martin de Rada traveled to the nearby islands to further their missionary work. In June 1565, Andres de Urdaneta and Andres de Aguirre returned to the Augustinian monastery in Mexico City to report on their pioneering missionary work in the islands. Arriving in Manila, the Augustinians were assigned a large plot of land inside “Ciudad Murada” or Intramuros to build their headquarters. The San Agustin Church and Convent complex was completed in 1571. For over three hundred years, San Agustin was the base for the evangelization of Las Islas Filipinas and the rest of Asia. From Manila, the Augustinians fanned out to Bulacan and Pampanga all the way to the Ilocos. They built great churches in the Bulacan towns of Calumpit, Quingua (present–day Plaridel), Bigaa (present–day Balagtas), Hagonoy, Malolos, and Guiguinto as well as in the Pampanga towns of Lubao, Bacolor, Apalit, Macabebe, Betis, and San Fernando.