Provenance: Acquired from Ma. Cristina Kit Ongpin Roxas, ca. 1995

ABOUT THE WORK

This interesting, ornate commode of narra wood, with five drawers and a pair of Solomonic columns from the last quarter of the 19th century, is of a type found in the remote towns of Laguna province — Majayjay, Liliw, Nagcarlan, Magdalena, Pagsanjan. The drawers feature relief carvings of leaves and fretwork of Neo-Renaissance/Second Empire inspiration. An interesting Filipino folk feature is the woven cane design inside a medallion on the plinths of the columns. Many examples of this type feature characteristic, exaggerated C-scroll feet, colloquially called “suso” (snail) by antique dealers and their scouts. Such ornate pieces of late Victorian inspiration furnished the houses of the “hacendero” land-owning class in Laguna province during the late 1800s up to the pre-war. There is an excellent example of this type of variant, ornate, Laguna commode in the magnificent collection of the Don Arsenio Escudero family of San Pablo, Laguna. -Augusto M.R. Gonzalez III