Provenance: Heirs of Trinidad Gorricho Pardo de Tavera

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. Probably 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 was made for a lady and stands on four turned and tapering bedposts 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 are 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 is 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. 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 an ovoid carved with downturned acanthus leaves and topped by a beaded ring surmounted by a turned and carved finial. The yokes are pierced and carved with a stylized flower with four large petals alternating with smaller ones in between emanating in a swirling pattern from a central boss. The bed is part of the estate of Trinidad Gorricho Pardo de Tavera, a multi-faceted man who was not only a doctor of medicine, but a linguist, bibliographer and scholar, as well. He was a representative to the Malolos Congress in 1898 and Director of Diplomacy of the Republic but resigned from this position a month after in order to campaign for cooperation and peace under American sovereignty. In 1899, he founded La Democracia, the first pro-American daily in the country which became the organ of the Federal Party aka Federalistas, of which he was the first president. He was appointed a member of the Philippine Commission in 1901. Trini, as he was called, is best known for his scholarly studies on Philippine history, alphabets, manners and customs of the Filipinos, the origin of their numerals, the etymology of Philippine tribes, medicinal plants and maps of P. Murillo Velarde. Pardo de Tavera also fought for intellectual freedom from outmoded traditions, superstitions and religious intolerance. A former Director of the Philippine Library and Museum, his collection of books was bought by the National Library for P25,000. He was the brother-in-law of Juan Luna, the painter and the grandfather of Mita Pardo de Tavera, Secretary of Health under President Cory Aquino. -Martin I. Tinio, Jr