Provenance: A gift from Julio Nakpil to Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera and from thence to its present owners, through an unbroken line of succession.

T.H. Pardo de Tavera would relate in his documentation that this seal was used 'since the beginning of the Katipunan, which further research has refined its timeline.

ABOUT THE WORK

The Kataastaasang Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (the Supreme and Most Noble Society of the Sons of the Country) or Katipunan was more than a secret society. It had visionary intent: To secede from Spain and return to a time before the arrival of the Spanish when the Philippines was free and sovereign, and its people not enslaved. “The ambition in its (foundational) document the ‘Casaysayan, Pinagcasunduan, Manga Dakilang Cautosan’ of 1892 was colossal,” writes KKK scholar Jim Richardson, “declaring independence not just as a goal, but an action taken,” a status already attained by its very proclamation. The Katipunan’s seals were graphic symbols of its momentous aspirations — the sun and its rays which would light the path to freedom, and under which a free country would flourish, together with the ‘Ka’ of ancient Tagalog script to signify the Katipunan itself, the instrument of liberation. The ‘Ka’ could also stand for the utopian ideals of ‘Kalayaan’ (Liberty) and ‘Kapayapaan’ (Peace). This seal thus encapsulates the historic vision that inspired Bonifacio to found the Katipunan in 1892. ——— Fast forward to mid-November 1896. Just before Bonifacio left Balara to make his fateful journey to Cavite, he created a ‘Mataas ng Sangunian’ or ‘High Council’ to act as the Katipunan’s governing body in the ‘Northern District’, which covered the district of Morong and the provinces of Manila, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. To serve as the Council’s ‘Mataas na Pangulo’ (High President), Bonifacio appointed Isidoro Francisco, a leather manufacturer who had once belonged to the Liga Filipina; and as ‘Mataas na Kalihim’ (High Secretary) he appointed Julio Nakpil, a piano teacher from a wealthy background who had also been an active member of the Liga. It is not known whether Bonifacio made any other appointments before he left, but in his letter to the Mataas na Sangunian dated December 12, 1896, written from Cavite, he ratified the authority of a number of councilors (Kasanguni) elected to the body, and also approved the election of Hermogenes Bautista as commander (Punong Hukbo) of the army of Pantayanin (near Antipolo), which was where the Mataas na Sangunian was initially based.” By January 1897, Nakpil had taken over from Francisco as ‘Mataas na Pangulo’ and he continued to hold that office in the coming months, through the tumultuous aftermath of the Tejeros Convention which saw Emilio Aguinaldo elected as the new leader of the Revolution, undermining the position and influence of the Supremo. These events would crescendo with a failed counter-coup, Bonifacio’s trial, and finally his tragic assassination in the foothills of Maragondon on May 10, 1897. As soon as Bonifacio was dead, Aguinaldo gave orders for a “Departmental Government of Central Luzon” to be created which would replace the existing Katipunan government over a wide area, including the four provinces over which Nakpil’s High Council had jurisdiction. Nakpil was invited to join the Departmental Government as “Minister of Development.” He accepted the post, but at the same time, in his own words, he “hinted at the continuation of the Katipunan”. The Katipunan, he firmly believed — even without Bonifacio — continued to hold sway, having paid the price through the blood and tears of its men. It should not, and would not, be so easily cancelled. From the standpoint of Aguinaldo and his advisers, Nakpil had gone “off message”. Not without reason, they suspected that he wanted the High Council to remain in existence, with him still as its president. Aguinaldo’s camp did not want the Katipunan name to be discarded, or its symbols to disappear. They still regarded themselves as Katipuneros. But they absolutely did not want the Katipunan to continue in its old form, with civil or military units that challenged and conflicted with the Republic’s own. When they got to hear about Nakpil’s dissent, to quote Nakpil again, “Mr Emilio Aguinaldo took this ill and without any further explanation ordered Generals Severino Taino and Pio del Pilar to assassinate me.” The ink-stamp confirms that “continuing the Katipunan” was more than a notion in Nakpil’s head. It was a vow made not just to a friend and ally but a sacred trust to a cause greater than him or even Bonifacio. And that the Katipunan was the only way forward to that goal. He did actually try to keep some form of Katipunan organization alive. The locus of the ‘Mataas na Sangunian’ may have moved south, to Laguna, but Nakpil’s letter to the parish priest of Paete makes plain his ongoing commitment to fighting under the Katipunan’s banner. Writing more than four months after Bonifacio’s death, Nakpil beseeches the priest to contribute to the ‘expenses of war’, and to make a written statement pledging ‘not to cause any harm to the Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan, or defenders of the fatherland.” More poigantly, it is a twin of the seal that Andres Bonifacio would use in the last days of his life in 1897 for the 'Kataastaasang Kapulugan'.