Provenance: 1) Workshop of Teodoro Tinio, Angeles, Pampanga, 2) A Private Collection in the United States

ABOUT THE WORK

The comoda was a low cabinet that was usually found in the bedroom of a house, upon which the household images of the family altar were usually placed. It always had two doors with two shelves inside, as well as a pair of drawers above the doors. This small comoda was influenced by the Duncan Phyfe Style that was brought in by American traders and businessmen in the early decades of the 19th century, when the US was the colony’s biggest trading partner. It is an early 20th century version made in the workshops of Teodoro Tinio in Angeles, Pampanga, the largest furniture factory in Central Luzon until the outbreak of World War II. Tinio’s works were known for its fine joinery, craftsmanship and the delicate inlays of carabao bone on his pieces. His diamond-shaped lozenges were of smaller dimensions that those used elsewhere. The small comoda, because of its unusual small size, was probably made for a lady or a child. It stands on four turned kamagong feet consisting of an attenuated vase-shaped form on a rounded bun foot and topped by a pair of rings and a plinth inlaid on the exposed sides with a large stellar flower composed of eight attenuated diamond-shaped lozenges radiating from an inlaid kamagong disk incised with a dot. This stellar flower is repeated throughout the piece. Aprons consisting of narrow slats of narra connect the legs in front and at the sides and are decorated with a series diamond-shaped lozenges of carabao bone form an inlaid border on the lower part. The carcass frame, entirely of narra, is edged with line molding and likewise inlaid on the front edges with the same series of bone lozenges. A pair of slim, turned kamagong colonnettes on plinths flank the carcass on either side, a pair in front and another pair at the rear, resting on extensions of the lower horizontal carcass frame. The finely turned colonnettes have narrow shafts carved with reeds and rest on and are surmounted by vase-shaped turned bases and capitals, the latter of smaller size than the former. The colonnettes on either side seemingly support a small square drawer with a turned kamagong drawer pull inlaid with a bone disk at the center. Although the drawer was usually used to hold candles, it was also a convenient place for storing a lady’s fans. The sides of the small drawer are inlaid with a border of lozenges like that on the aprons and further ornamented with a large inlaid pattern consisting of a large stellar flower bordered on either side with a filet of bone line-inlay with diamond-shaped leaves. The cabinet is made entirely of narra, except for the legs and the colonnettes. It has two doors, each consisting of a framed panel carved with an oblong rectangle with rounded corners. The corners of each frame are inlaid with a stellar flower with symmetrical line-inlaid vine scrolls on either side with stylized leaves of diamond-shaped lozenges that gradually diminish in size as they near the end of the vine. The center of each door panel is inlaid with an unusual lyre-shaped pattern of leafy scrolls with stylized bone leaves emanating from a stellar flower which is surmounted by a vertical row of alternating bone and kamagong disks separated by tiny diamond lozenges and topped by a flower. The doors have no handles and rely on the key to serve as a pull when needed. The sides of the cabinet are ornamented with the same lyre-shaped inlay found on the door panel. A pair or drawers above the doors rest on a drawer support similarly inlaid like the carcass frame. Between the drawers is a wide vertical block incised with line molding on the edges and inlaid with a stellar flower at the bottom from which sprout a vertical leafy stem. Each drawer, albeit of small dimensions, is provided with a pair of turned kamagong drawer pulls, each inlaid with a bone disk at the center. The drawer face between the pulls is inlaid with a horizontal version of that on the door frames. The top of the comoda consists of a single narra plank with straight edges incised with line molding and inlaid like the carcass frames. -Martin I. Tinio, Jr.