{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":55039,"auction_id":106,"set_id":140,"lot_number":"218","artist":"The Mindanao Gold Cuff Pre-Hispanic","title":null,"starting_price":1000000,"signed_dated":null,"medium":"22k 244 grams","size":"H: 4” (10 cm) D: 3” (8 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":null,"exhibited":"PROPERTY FROM THE MARGARITA COJUANGCO COLLECTION","literature":null,"write_up":"In 2008 as research for the completion of my degree, Doctor of Philosophy major in History at the University of Santo Tomas, I motored to Lu’uk, Sulu with Mayor Acmad Omar. Samal and Taosug recognized me while I strolled around their tiny boulevard watching the temporary calm waters of the Capual Sea. The residents told me that at night the American Visiting Forces would open their flood lights and dive to steal our Filipino gold treasures. A police officer likewise related his own anecdote to Mayor Omar. I wrote to the American Ambassador but never received her reply.<br /><br />I spent the night in Jolo at the Loong residence where I was given a tiny celadon plate and a white spotted porcelain jar from the Samal Balanghai wreckage. When I arrived in Zamboanga City a solid gold, the widest bracelet, I had ever seen, decorated with rosettes, waves and dots was waiting me. It was breathtaking. There was a golden teacup, and a cup of gold so smooth on the surface I made it slide on my face. They were testimonies of perfections by goldsmiths from Butuan. I purchased only one of these archaeological witnesses of trade links found in Lu’uk with links Indonesia and India. The merchandise was tested and they were true antiquities.<br /><br />  The lucrative commerce of the Samals in Butuan most likely resulted in its inclusion among the allied territories of the expanding insular Southeast Asian Shrivijaya (ca. 700-1300 AD) maritime empire. In 1011 AD, there was Sri Bata Shaja the new ruler of Butuan with an Indianized name. Shaja presented an engraved gold tablet carried by his envoy Likan-hsieh, to the Chinese Court. Gold ornaments had been restricted to royalty and those whom the Sultan favored with handsome gifts like krises with jeweled gold kilts and gold encrusted sheaths.<br /><br />  The Chinese in their response to Likan-hsiesh, Margarita Cembrano, Butuan historian wrote was honored with a military title, The Cherished Transformed General, together with the envoy of Champa. With the much desired recognition granted, the Chinese issued a memorial praising the distant land of Butuan complete with the requested flags, pennons and armors. The successful mission was Sri Bata Shaja’s diplomatic and economic coup to bypass Champa its middleman to China. <br /><br /> In 1521, Pigafetta Magellan’s chronicler wrote, Magellan had met with Rajah Kolambu of Surigao whose brother Siaui was the ruler of Butuan. From them, the Europeans learned that by only shifting the earth in Mindanao, one could find chunks of gold “the size of walnuts and eggs.” Butuan in Mindanao was described as a Srivijayan (AD 500 -1300) trading post. Javanese mined gold in the Agusan-Surigao area. <br /><br />  The Samals in Butuan, Margaritas Cembrano deduced in 1998 were in contact with the Arab, Indian and Persian trading ships which dominated the sea route from the South China Sea to the Arabian Sea. The prevailing winds in the South China Sea and in the Indian Ocean forced ships from the Middle East, India and China to stay in the area of the Malay Peninsula near Malacca and across Melaya (Djambi), Palembang, and Kota China in Sumatra Island. These transshipment ports, strategically located in the East-West route, boasted of an impressive array of spices, aromatic woods, medical substances, precious metals of gold such as, chains, beaten foils for teeth and burial masks. <br /><br />   The discovery of the Balanghai in Lu’uk led me to travel to Cabadbaran. The Samals, piratical traders, because of the economics of the times, were expert boat builders of the 10th century who challenged the open seas. They could approximate their position by looking at the stars and dipping their finger in the sea to predict typhoons. <br /><br /> The Samal’s trading economic opportunities developed in Sulu, Celebes, Borneo causing a mass migration to Sulu and inter-marriages between Samal Seafarers and Agusan women of Butuan. They settled in Central Sulu and eventually became the Samals of the Balangingi Islands in Sulu who engaged in slave trading expeditions. That migration and south sea sailing patterns could explain why a Balanghai was found under the Capual Sea in Lu’uk that leads to the vast Mindanao Sea.  <br /><br />Brunei was a trade base and so were the small ports on the east coast of Borneo, the Celebes, Mollucas, Sulu, Maguindanao, and Luzon in the 13th century. Trade brought widespread dispersion of linguistic groups at the southern and central Philippines, possibly related with food quests. The traders traveling to South China from their eastern point of origin followed the Srivijayan route from Java-Sumatra via the Strait of Malacca to Champa and Tonkin in Vietnam, to Guangdong and other South China ports. The Samal seafarers from Butuan in collaboration with varied ethnic traders, sailors and crew were carrier of various goods emanating from the regions of Borneo, Sulawesi (or Celebes), the Mollucas, New Guinea, Sumatra, Java, Malay Peninsula and India. Sailing on the trade wind, they passed by Butuan since it was the last relay station after Borneo. Around this period, the extensive Arab-Chinese trade diverted its route by turning eastward to the Malacca Strait towards Borneo, the Philippines and Formosa before proceeding to North China, Korea and Japan. As those historical occurrences happened during the pre Historic times before the Hispanic period, the three gold items exhibiting power, wealth and craftsmanship of the Butuano’s, discovered under the Capual Sea, were possibly to be presented to the Chinese Courts or to sell at the ports by the Indian Sea or to prosperous Taosug Sultans.<br /><br />  I likewise held tiny fragments of paper thin gold buddahs, gold rings and gold rosettes of 24 karats from Butuan that 2010 in Manila. These Samals-Butuano’s had proven their goldsmithing ability that today is still largely coveted.  - Margarita “Tingting” de los Reyes Cojuanco","lot_group":"JEWELRY","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":0,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":0,"userBid":5930,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"UNSOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":0,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":56397,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/106/140/lot/218.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":217,"next":219,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}