Provenance: Acquired in the 1960s from Brest, France

ABOUT THE WORK

This exquisite ivory brush pot has been carved with a pictorial representation of the best-selling 19th-century epic entitled The Adventures of a Gentleman from Breton in the Philippine Islands, (or “Les aventures d’un gentilhomme breton aux I?les Philippines”), by Paul de la Gironiere, one of Brittany’s most famous sons. De la Gironiere would live in the Philippines from 1819 and die in Calauan, Laguna in 1862. His fearless forays in Jala-Jala with carabaos, crocodiles, and even boa-constrictors would make his swashbuckling accounts one of the biggest best-sellers of his time. He would write, "We were the first tourists that ever ventured to expose our lives on this Socolme lake. The Indians who had come with us refused most decidedly to enter the boats, and exerted all their eloquence to prevent us from going on the water. They spoke to us thus:— “You are going, for no good purpose, to expose yourselves to very great dangers, against which you have no means of defence, for before you have gone far you will see thousands of [190]caymans rising out of the deep water; they will come to attack you, and what can you oppose to those ferocious and invulnerable monsters? Your guns and bullets cannot wound them. And as for escape by rowing quickly, that is not possible. In their own element they swim much faster than your canoes, and when they come up to you they will turn your boats up-side-down with far more ease than you can drive it along; and then the frightful scene will begin, from which you cannot escape.” "But we were never deterred by dangers or difficulties; so, taking no account of the prognostics of my prudent Indians, we, while they were delivering their long speeches, had lashed together two canoes for greater security. "Our canoes went on, moving farther and farther from the brink from which we had embarked; and it glided easily over the glassy sheet of water, which is never agitated by even the roughest gales, and does not receive the rays of the sun except when that luminary is at the zenith. The silence in which we were absorbed was suddenly broken by the appearance of a cayman, which raised its hideous head, and opened its enormous jaws, as if about to swallow the canoes, as it darted after us. The moment was come; the grand drama announced by the Indians was about to be realised, or all our fears would be dissipated without any delay. There was not one instant to be spared, and we had no choice but to try and escape as fast as we could, for the enemy was gaining on us, and it would be madness to await his attack. I was steering, and I exerted myself to the utmost to get away from the danger and to escape to the shore. But the amphibious beast was approaching so fast that he could almost seize us, when Lindsay, running all risks, fired his gun direct at the brute...." The intricately carved ivory captures this very moment as the giant crocodile rears its head and widens its jaw for attack, the hunter having fired on the massive creature, appears to have lost his grip on his hunting rifle. His mastiff stands between him and the monster on the little canoe. In the distance is another horned foe of De la Gironiere, the wild buffalo (carabao). There are mountains covered with finely incised leaves, a thatched hut and clouds complete the raucous scene. This ivory piece significantly unites three cultures in a single work of art : The story-telling of a Frenchman captured by the finesse of Filipino artisanship, on a piece of Chinese ivory. Would this otherwise unknown artist Victor Act have been of Chinese descent. He was certainly living in one of the centers of wood-sculpting in the Philippines, that is Paete. It is well known that there were ivory workshops in Manila at the time, producing high quality arte?facts, but the lack of inscriptions makes it difficult to distinguish them from those coming from China. The Ivory presented today is indeed altogether signed Visente Acat, dated 1889 and situated in the land of great sculptures in the Philippines, Paete, Laguna.