Provenance: Provenance: Parian Workshops, Manila Private Collection, Madrid

ABOUT THE WORK

During the entire colonial period, formal European clothing had to be donned for any important occasion, even if one was literally melting inside one’s woolen suit under the hot tropical weather. What was important, then as now, was to look as distinguished and as rich as possible. After the occasion, the woolen clothes had to be put in storage. Wool, however, attracted moths that bore holes into the cloth and left a moth-eaten fabric. The only way to drive the moths away was to keep the clothes in chests or cabinets made of cedar, whose fragrance moths abhorred. It was fortunate that kalantas, (Toona calantas. Merr. & Rolfe) or Philippine cedar abounded in the islands’ forests. Its reddish hardwood was ideal for paneling, shipbuilding and carving. Though soft and easy to carve when newly cut, it dried up easily and hardened, thereby requiring carving tools to be constantly sharpened when working with the wood. This kalantas chest, called a baulmundo because it was used for traveling, was carved to imitate cordovan leather. The latter was made from a fibrous flat muscle beneath the hide on the rump of a horse and derived its name from the city of Cordoba in Andalucia, Spain, where it was prepared by the Moors. Cordovan aka shell cordovan was a very strong leather that took a high shine, needed very little waxing or polishing, and lasted for decades, even centuries. Thus, stamped, carved, gilded and dyed with colors, equine leather was the favorite material used for chests in 17th century Spain. Since the horse was not indigenous to the Philippines and had to be imported from China, horse leather was not available locally. The artisans of the Parian turned to using kalantas, but carved it so as to imitate stamped and carved Cordovan leather. The designs closely followed Moorish patterns and were poly-chromed and gilded to give a very rich effect. To protect the contents, which were very valuable as woolen cloth had to be imported from Spain or Mexico, a sturdy hand-forged wrought-iron lock was put on the chest. The baulmundo of kalantas always had a domed top and all its surfaces were profusely carved with scrolls and arabesques in the Moorish Style with a touch of the local okir designs. The artisans who used the leather chests as models even included the straps when copying the piece. This particular chest, though not overly large, is probably the most beautiful that has ever come into the market. It has a central front panel carved with a pair of crowned lions rampant on either side of a stylized tree consisting of symmetrical scrolled branches terminating in stylized flowers. The lions, representing Spain, particularly the province of Leon, are carved in the shape of keilins, mythical Chinese beasts. This is an indication that the carver, who had never seen a live lion, relied on his repertory of Chinese beasts that he was familiar with. The top of the chest is carved at the center with a rondel decorated with a crowned double-headed eagle, the crest of Hapsburg Dynasty who ruled Spain until 1700, when the Bourbons ascended the throne. The Augustinian Order in the Philippines, by Royal Decree, was allowed to use the crowned eagle as an insignia for being the first missionaries in the Islands. The presence of both these emblems on this chest attests to its having been the personal possession of a high official in the colonial government or the prior of the Augustinian Order. The four vertical strips running from the front, over the lid and to the back of the chest, are all carved with a continuous design of scrollwork edged with a scalloped border. Between these vertical strips, running from the bottom to the middle of the top of the lidm are carved meandering scrolls with flowers resembling stylized chrysanthemums. From the top of the chest, a mirror image of the design is carved towards the bottom at the rear of the chest. The sides of the baul are carved with a stylized tree of life with the same types of scrolls and flowers found in the rest of the chest. The chest has a strap riveted to the lid with a hinged flap that falls over the circular keyhole shield in front of the baul to be locked into place. The latter is ornamented with a pierced scalloped border and attached to the chest by nails with decorated heads. Three hinged straps are nailed to the back and lid of the chest. These straps, all of wrought-iron, are engraved with a design of linear scrollwork. Cantoneras or corner guards are nailed to the corners to strengthen them and prevent the sides from falling off. There is a pair on each of the four corners of the body of the chest itself, one on each corner of the lid and another connecting each side panel to the top of the lid. All these corner metalwork are of wrought-iron pierced with a strapwork design at the ends and ornamented with a stippled border. Heavy wrought-iron handles on each side are attached by rings to bosses decorated with radiating lines. The baul was always painted in primary colors, often embellished with gilding. Unfortunately, the high humidity of the tropics flaked away the gesso that was the base of the original polychrome and gilding on the chest’s surfaces. When the mania for collecting antiques began in the late 1960s, whatever polychrome and gesso that remained on the chest was stripped away and the bare wood varnished to give it a shine. How unlike the beautiful colorful ones, with their original, primary colors of polychrome and gilding, still extant in Mexico today! -Martin I. Tinio, Jr.