Provenance: Private collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

This genuine example of a neoclassical mesa altar altar table of balayong wood from Batangas province has an impressive, single, thick piece of the said hardwood for its top with receding moldings on the sides. The solid tabletop is supported by the four legs of the casing, with additional support provided by the four, thick guilloche brackets attached to the top outer sections of the legs which run through the height of the piece (amusingly termed Olympic by antique agents and dealers; the repetitive guilloche patterns of interlocking circles/ ovals actually originated in the ancient Near East, popularized in Classical Greece and Rome, and were still utilized in Medieval design). There are three drawers, two on top of one, applied with lanite and kamagong line inlay to simulate panels. From the top center of the panels descend characteristic Batangas bone inlay of downward– facing triangular spokes with round discs at each tip. The top two drawers were perhaps intended to store valuables like jewelry and gold coins and that was the reason why they were neither fitted with pulls nor keyholes — to discourage easy access. The long bottom drawer is the only one fitted with a brass keyhole and two traditional brass pulls. The front of the casing is embellished with sparse bone inlay of round disc– and diamond– shapes (surrounding the drawers). Underneath the three drawers is a cenefa/apron of the guilloche pattern. The sides of the casing are two horizontal solid pieces of balayong. The back of the casing are also two horizontal solid pieces of balayong. Supporting the four sides of the casing are elegant straight, slightly attenuated legs enhanced with thick kamagong line inlay set with round disc– and diamond–shaped bone inlays. It is plainly visible that there was so much painstaking thought and effort expended on this piece by the seasoned, Batangas master craftsmen who produced it. The most coveted piece sought by serious Filipino art and antique collectors since the postwar years is a genuine Batangas Uno mesa altar, rendered in reddish–brown balayong wood. The type belongs to a series of remarkably crafted, Sinitic, Batangas mesa altar altar tables identified and described by Filipiniana scholar/jeweler/antique dealer Ramon Villegas and antique dealer/wood expert Osmundo Esguerra in the late 1970s as Batangas Uno for the rococo prototype, Batangas Dos for the transitional version from rococo to neoclassicism, and Tuwid for the neoclassical archetype. According to Villegas and Esguerra, the Batangas Uno prototypes were made by a master cabinetmaker who had his atelier in the area of what is now Taal town. In a seeming nod to the artistic trends of Europe in the eighteenth century, the initial rococo exuberance of the Batangas Uno prototypes were eventually tempered to the more restrained Batangas Dos versions towards the end of the eighteenth century. And then the Batangas Dos versions were completely reconfigured to more linear forms that became the Tuwid archetypes during the early years of the nineteenth century. In any case, the said series of Batangas altar tables — Batangas Uno, Batangas Dos, Tuwid— have long been possessions of prestige by their own merits and will continue to be so in the years to come. Antique Batangas furniture are characterized by a deliberate Oriental geometry of scale and proportion, fine mature hardwoods, precise Chinese–style construction with classical mortise–and–dowel techniques, age–old durability and are sought after by serious collectors. In the early 1980s, it was the duo of Filipiniana scholar/jeweler/ antique dealer Ramon Villegas and antique dealer/wood expert Osmundo Esguerra who exposed collectors and scholars to the timeless beauty and discreet refinement of antique Batangas furniture and thus created a justifiable demand that has lasted decades. (Augusto Marcelino Reyes Gonzalez III)