Provenance: Baliuag, Bulacan

Exhibited: Ayala Museum, "Curated by Federico de Vera," Makati, 7 November 2017 to 28 January 2018

Literature: Federico de Vera, CURATED BY FEDERICO DE VERA, Ayala Museum and BPI Foundation, 2017 (illustrated)

ABOUT THE WORK

Any bone-inlaid piece of furniture nowadays is almost instantly labeled as ‘made in Baliuag, Bulacan’. That is not always the case, because Gapan in Nueva Ecija (which was then a part of Pampanga) was the first to make bone-inlaid furniture in the 1820s. The craft was initiated by a Chinese artisan who made the most magnificent pieces found in Nueva Ecija and Pampanga. It was only in the 1850s on that Baliuag, which became a town in the 1840s, began producing furniture inlaid with carabao-bone. Its output was distributed throughout Bulacan via the Calumpit River and reached all the way to Manila, where rich families grabbed them up. The Sheraton Style of furniture as interpreted by Duncan Phyfe in New York became popular in the Philippines during the 2nd quarter of the 19th century onwards and greatly influenced furniture made in Gapan, Nueva Ecija and Baliwag, Bulacan. This was mainly because the United States was the colony’s greatest trading partner during the 1st 3-quarters of that century. This balayong and narra sideboard with a serpentine front and square, tapering legs on spade feet is a graceful example of the Sheraton Style. Superbly executed and with elegant proportions, it stands on 6 legs, 4 in front and 2 at the rear. The slim, tapering balayong legs are line-inlaid in bone that encloses a series of three crosses formed by four diamond-shaped lozenges joined at one end followed by a row of vertical similar shaped single lozenges. The upper part of the leg is inlaid with a large stellar flower with 6 petals within a circle composed of diamond triangles joined at the bottom. Joining the legs together are arced narra aprons incised at the bottom to form a molding and bordered by a series of diamond bone lozenges.The carcass, the upper and lower drawer supports and dividers are all of balayong. The former, bordered by a strip of bone line inlay, contains a wide strip of kamagong edged with bone line-inlay. The kamagong strip is embellished with a series of bone disks with a black dot drilled at each center. The horizontal carcass frames of the piece, also of balayong, are inlaid in front and at the sides with a wide kamagong strip inlaid with a series of bone disks with a dot at each center. The sideboard has 6 drawers, 3 above and 3 below. The wider convex ones at the center are flanked by concave ones on either side, all with keyholes but no handles. The drawer faces are line-inlaid with bone and kamagong in the form of a rectangle with apsidal ends and a semicircle beneath each keyhole. The long sides of the rectangle are bordered by a series of narrow bone strips, while the apsidal ends are bordered with a series of joined bone triangles forming a serrated edge. A large inlaid swag consisting of a curving vine with diamond-shaped leaves emanating from a disk incised to form a flower and terminating with the same decorates the central part of each central drawer. The sides of the sideboard carved with a square panel with an inlaid border of diamond-shaped lozenges. At the center of the panel is inlaid an oval stellar flower with 8 petals enclosed by an oval line-inlay surrounded by a sunburst of 8 rays inlaid in bone and kamagong. The top of the sideboard is a single narra plank with a serpentine front, its edges inlaid with kamagong and bone just like that of the horizontal carcass frame. The top of the sideboard has a line-inlaid, quadrant-cornered border of kamagong and lanite following the shape of the plank.