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, Madrid, 1893
Exposición Regional Filipina, Manila, 1895

Literature: Catalogue Entry for Pottery No. 96. Exposicion Historico-Americana, 1892. “A gourd with the Pasig River scene painted in oil.”

ABOUT THE WORK

In the contemporary cultural life of Manila, there are quiet, affluent cognoscenti who delight in arcane objects such as ancient Oriental ceramics (Chinese ceramics of the Tang, Sung, Yuan, Ming dynasties as well as Vietnamese and Thai) and Metal Age Philippine earthenware (500–200 BC) which were usually ritual vessels. The Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Philippine ceramics were all excavated concurrently during “The Great Pot Rush” of the 1950s (which lasted to the 60s and 70s) spearheaded by superrich connoisseurs and scholars Architect Leandro Valencia Locsin and heiress wife Cecilia Araneta Yulo (“Lindy” and “Cecile”), European art and antiques collector Dr Arturo Cabarrus de Santos, Filipino art and religious antiques collector Luis Maria Zaragoza Araneta, abstractionist artist and heir to the Ayala Corporation Fernando Montojo Zobel de Ayala, and the formidable cosmopolitan collector Marie–Theresa Gallardo Lammoglia (“Bebe,” Mrs Leonides Sarao Virata, a lady in the vein of international society) in precolonial burial sites in Santa Ana, Manila; Calatagan, Batangas; Bai’, Pila, San Pablo, Laguna; Iloilo; Butuan; and elsewhere. The scholarly studies of (Chinese) Tang, Sung, and Yuan imperial ware and Sung dynasty scrolls were undertaken by Rita Ching–Tan, heiress to the Oriental Petroleum fortune of early taipan Cheng Ban Yek. Interest and activity in ancient Oriental ceramics and Metal Age Philippine earthenware are currently alive and well within a very tight circle of connoisseurs, scholars, and collectors. Strangely enough, what has been lost is the study and appreciation of antique domestic Philippine earthenware from the precolonial times to the mid–1800s, a field which was already firmly established by the 1880s, the time of the “ilustrados” --- whose generation included Benito Legarda, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, Pedro Paterno, Jose Rizal, Ariston Bautista, Baldomero Roxas, et al. Antique Filipino pottery was unique and recognizable from its Asian counterparts. Paterno and his generation were already aware of the unique characteristics, subtleties, and nuances of the native earthenware; there was considerable forethought and physical effort involved in their production. The “ilustrados” already knew that the older specimens were more graceful in form yet eminently usable (1600 – 1800); that the precolonial specimens tended to be inspired by fruit, vegetable, and animal forms (before 1600). Perhaps, due to Americanization in the early 1900s, modernization prewar, not to mention World War II, all that awareness and appreciation for something uniquely Filipino was forever lost. This gourd–shaped (or “macopa”–shaped) native earthenware vessel is about 12” inches high, lightly glazed, and painted with a view of the Rio Pasig at dusk, when the setting sun causes the sky over Bai’ de Manila to explode with a stunning kaleidoscope of yellow, pink, orange, vermilion, red, and lavender. Given Paterno’s regard for this piece, it can be concluded that it was not a tourist souvenir. It is very likely that it is an old piece which was artistically enhanced in Manila by one of his talented sisters, perhaps by Paz the painter (Paz Santa Paterno y Devera Ygnacio, o 1867 – + 1914). This gourd–shaped “palayok” was significant enough for Paterno to have included it in the 1892 Exposicion Historico–Americana de Madrid: In the “Catalogo General de la Exposicion Historico– Americana de Madrid 1892,” Tomo II, Section S: Pottery:#96. A gourd with the Rio Pasig scene painted in oil. This unusual native gourd or “palayok” painted with a view of the Rio Pasig, cherished by Paterno, was thought lost to time until it resurfaced with a group of singular objects owned by Don Pedro Paterno from the estate of his wife Doña Luisa Piñeyro y Merino in Spain. It was well–documented in photographs as one of the native 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 its reappearance, the circle of provenance has been completed.