PROPERTY OF A VERY DISTINGUISHED FAMILY Last Quarter of the 19th Century

ABOUT THE WORK

During the last quarter of the 19th century, the foremost furniture maker in the colony was Ah-Tay. His workshop in Binondo turned out elaborate narra furniture of the highest quality and workmanship, with exceptional carving and attention to detail. This bed is an exception as it is extremely rare to find Ah-Tay furniture done in Balayong and probably the only one of its kind. The best-selling item he made was the so-called Ah-Tay Four-Poster Bed aka Calabasa (squash) Bed, because of the shape of its bedpost. This was the most popular bed in upper-class homes and can be found literally from the Ilocos to the Visayas. The bed stands on four turned and tapering bed posts with a top carved in the shape of a squash-shaped dome, hence the calabasa moniker. Each leg has two reels below the mattress support and terminates in bun feet. Pierced and carved bed supports on the four sides join the legs together. These are carved with C-scrolls at each end, connected by parallel grooved moldings ending in volutes that rest above and below a disk carved with a flower with eight petals. The bed supports of the long sides are appliqued with an oblong lozenge with a grooved molding around it and rounded ends with a bead attached to the middle of each. The tester supports are carved in the shape of thin and attenuated lyres joined end to end with a grooved circle, pierced and carved with a flower with four large petals and four smaller ones in between. The lower lyre shape is pierced and symmetrically carved with grooved C-scrolls with a stemmed fruit with two leaves within the volutes. The headboard, as typically found in Ah-Tay’s work, is intricately carved on both sides from a single panel. Shaped like a cusped ogee-arched frame pierced surmounted by a turned and pointed finial, it is carved with a central escutcheon supported and topped by acanthus leaves and flanked by symmetrical foliate scrolls. Above the escutcheon is a shell bordered by similar scrolls. Large vertical foliate C-scrolls enclosing a honeysuckle are symmetrically carved on either side of the central escutcheon. The tester has yoke-shaped sides connected to stylized pineapples topped by a beaded ring with turned and carved finials. The yokes, topped with a turned and pointed finial, are pierced and carved beneath with a stylized shell flanked and topped by acanthus leaves and a rose dangling beneath. - From the Archives of Martin I. Tinio Jr.