Provenance:
Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno (1857– 1911) and
Doña Luisa Piñeyro de Lugo y Merino (Sra. de Paterno, d. 1897)

Exhibited:
Exposicion General de Las Islas Filipinas, 1887,
Palacio de Cristal, Parque de Retiro, Madrid;
Exposicion Historico-Americana, 1892 alongside the Exposicion
Historico Europe, Palacio de Biblioteca y Museos Nacionales
(National Library and Museums) 1892, Parque de Madrid
(formerly Parque de Retiro), Madrid
Exposicion Historico-Natural y Etnográfica, Palacio de Biblioteca
y Museos Nacionales (National Library and Museums) 1892,
Parque de Madrid (formerly Parque de Retiro), Madrid, 1893
Exposición Regional Filipina, Manila, 1895

Literature: Catalogo General de la Expocision Historico- Americana, 1892, Madrid; Section S; No 71-81, under “Miscellaneous Objects Crafted with Metal” and described as follows : “Ten white coconut cups mounyted on raised copper, featuring branches and fruits from the coconut tree.”

ABOUT THE WORK

These elaborate and remarkable cups are made of small white coconut halves set on smaller halves positioned in the reverse for balance. A well– articulated “palmero” palm leaf in solid silver (80%) starts as a handle and, in a whiplash curve presaging Art Nouveau, envelops the cup. By the 1870s, the principles of organic design heralding Art Nouveau were already gathering in the artistic consciousness of the French, British, Germans, Belgians, and Americans. Modernity in design had arrived. The article “Un Meseo y un The” in the “El Correo newspaper” 22 January 1884 issue reported with bated breath: “Beautiful objects filled each wall and floor of every room and corridor inside La Casa de Molo... On the table was a curious–looking tea set made of coconuts mounted on the precious metals of gold and silver; expensive antique cups and glasses; shells and mother– of–pearl; and a clay bust of the homeowner sculpted by Mariano Benlliure... Other closets held Pedro’s coconut collection which came in all sizes and colors: white, ebony, gray, stained black --- mounted on a clear base and so polished that one wouldn’t recognize them as coconuts. The gold– and silver–rimmed and handled coconut tea set took its place of prominence here.” On 23 January 1895, the Museo–Biblioteca de Filipinas (Manila) --- without the formal participation of its Director Don Pedro Paterno in its organizing committees --- exhibited similar silver–embellished coconut cups: “Objects of Art in Gold, Silver, or other Metals: Coffee set consisting of seven pieces of small coconuts, mounted in silver, with carved wooden tray by Don Cornelio Zamora.” While Filipinos had been drinking and eating off dried coconut shells for centuries, and that embellishing them with worked silver in the 1870s was a natural step towards their upliftment and gentrification, it was suggested that Pedro Paterno could have also taken inspiration from the traditional Mexican “tecomate” cups for this set: from Mexican dried calabash gourd (Cresentia cujete aka “cuastecomate” and “jicara”) to Filipino dried coconut (Cocos nucifera aka “niyog”). Tecomate cups of dried gourd decorated with silver, a metal abundant in Mexico, were used for drinking mezcal. Mezcal is an alcoholic beverage derived from any type of maguey; it is a type of tequila, in the same way that scotch and bourbon are types of whiskey. These creative goblets were most likely commissioned in the 1870s by a homesick Paterno through his sisters from the Santa Cruz or San Sebastian silversmiths --- Deveras, Ygnacios, Pinedas, and Zamoras --- who were all their relatives; his artistic sisters probably supervised its execution --- Agueda, Jacoba, Paz, and Trinidad (Dolores passed away young). One hundred fifty years later, they still speak eloquently of Paterno’s profound love for his native Filipinas, a patriotism so deep twenty–three years and more in Spain could only increase, not diminish it. These unusual coconut and silver goblets were thought lost to time until they surfaced with a group of singular objects owned by Don Pedro Paterno from the estate of his wife Doña Luisa Piñeyro y Merino in Spain. They were well–documented in photographs as a set of Filipino decorative pieces Paterno used to exhibit in his Filipino pavilions during international expositions. The objects remained in the Piñeyro residence when the childless Paterno couple returned to Filipinas in the 1890s; Doña Luisa passed away in Manila in 1897; Don Pedro passed away 14 years later in 1911. The Piñeyro family did not express any interest to claim anything from Don Pedro’s estate. With their reappearance, the circle of provenance has been completed. (A more luxurious version of these coconut and silver goblets, this time as cups entirely in solid silver (80%) with “anahaw” leaves and whiplash curves crafted by Cornelio and Crispulo Zamora of Calle San Sebastian, Manila in 1875, exists in the Paulino and Hetty Que Collection.)