Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

One of the most popular, most personal, and most useful of items in the Baliuag furniture repertoire was the “escritorio” or dropfront desk. It was a solid, square affair usually with four drawers, with the top drawer front collapsible to reveal a functional desk. It was embellished with carabao bone, kamagong, and lanite wood inlay as with all Baliuag furniture. Early productions were austere affairs with inlays of monastic simplicity. Later productions tended to be elaborate celebrations of inlay art. However, in whatever style, the best of Baliuag productions exhibited a patrician refinement and utter precision in ornamentation, elusive qualities sought by the discriminating and demanding collectors of this exquisite genre. The top of this example is a single piece of golden narra wood with receding moldings on its three front sides. The entire front of the casing or the drawer surrounds are set with kamagong strips inlaid with a pattern of bone diamonds enclosed by bone line inlay. The sides of the cabinet composed of two vertical planks are decorated with simulated panels of lanite, kamagong and bone inlay. A simple garland of stylized bone flowers and kamagong line inlay crowns the simulated panel. The four drawers are embellished with lanite and kamagong line inlays simulating neoclassical panels. The two knobs on each drawer are of kamagong. The front of the top drawer falls to reveal an elegant workspace for reading, writing, and studying with small shelves, drawers, and slots; sometimes there are secret compartments. The use of carabao bone, kamagong, and lanite inlay in this comoda can be described as restrained and elegant, actually a trademark of genuine early Baliuag pieces. The entire casing rests on four vase–shaped feet with brackets on both corners. The feet are inlaid with a single flower of bone on each side as well as graceful leaves of kamagong. The back of the comoda is composed of three vertical planks of golden narra wood. The overall look of this Baliuag “comoda” is reminiscent of an American Federal commode. Ironically, the United States of America, not Madre Espana, was the major trading partner of Las Islas Filipinas during the 1800s. American trading houses --- Russell & Co, Heard & Co, Olyphant & Co, Perkins & Co, WS Wetmore & Co, et al --- set up their headquarters and bonded warehouses in Binondo and put up satellite offices and warehouses in the provinces. Probably due to American impetus or initiative, an operation producing furniture in the fashionable American Federal style but decorated with inlays of carabao bone and kamagong wood (a very few with nacre/mother–of–pearl) began from around 1800 in Baliuag, Bulacan. Chairs, armchairs, altar cabinets, commodes, dropfront desks, sewing tables, beds, wardrobes, small center tables, occasional tables, segmented dining tables, and sideboards all adorned with carabao bone and kamagong inlays were produced primarily for the local market, although many American and European expatriates purchased pieces which they brought back with them to their home countries. So strong was the American connection and inclination to Baliuag–style furniture that when the United States Army under General Lawton arrived in that town in 1899, the enterprising townsfolk displayed new and old Baliuag furniture at the San Agustin parish church patio, knowing full well the Americans would find them irresistible and purchase them. The townsfolk were not mistaken as the pieces were promptly acquired by the Americans, mostly the officials. Baliuag–style furniture was derived directly from American Federal style, its clean lines and symmetry took inspiration from the work of the English cabinetmakers Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite, and Thomas Sheraton. They in turn were inspired by the French ebenistes to the Bourbon royals --- Jean–Francois Oeben, Jean–Henri Riesener, Martin Carlin, Bernard van Risenburgh II, Adam Weisweiler, et al. Ramon N. Villegas wrote about the Bulacan–Pampanga tradition of Philippine furniture, also known as the Baliwag style: “Representative of the Bulacan–Pampanga tradition, popularly known as the Baliwag style, is the sideboard, the extendable dining table with matching chairs, the chest of drawers, and the large comoda. The style makes use of narra and kamagong in combination, as well as inlaid ornamentation with bone and contrasting woods.” “The style may have originated from an atelier in the town of Baliwag, Bulacan, and diffused from there (up to Penaranda, Nueva Ecija, as Tinio points out; Penaranda must have been at the end of a riverine exchange system). The Bulacan–Pampanga tradition is based on neoclassicism as interpreted by the British furniture stylists, particularly Thomas Sheraton. Great Britain’s was by then the largest economic system in the world, and Bulacan–Pampanga sugar was passing through trading houses dealing with the English. Sojourns and education may have also been agencies through which British influence was absorbed. Some Filipinos are known to have studied in London and in Calcutta, India, which was a British colony then.” “The Bulacan–Pampanga tradition also produced case furniture with the same austere lines. There are examples of plain chests of drawers on bracket feet and with no decoration at all. Some have very restrained inlay work to outline the drawers. At the high point of the style, the drawers were ornamented with garlands of leaves and flowers and bordered with matang–pusa and hilis–kalamay.”