{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":22331,"auction_id":25,"set_id":44,"lot_number":"71","artist":"A “Palitera” / “Palillera”
\n(Toothpick Holder)","title":null,"starting_price":200000,"signed_dated":"2nd quarter of the 19th century (1825–50)
\nPampanga, Bulacan","medium":"solid silver (80%) from Mexican silver coins
\n552.6 grams","size":"Base: 2 1/4” x 4” (5 cm x 10 cm)
\nPedestal: 3” x 2” (8 cm x 5 cm)
\nPineapple: H: 5 1/4” (13 cm)
\nD: 5 1/4” (13 cm)
\nTotal size H: 10 1/2” (27 cm)
\nD: 5 1/2” (14 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Provenance:
\nPrivate collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"The Classical “Pineapple” Palitera --- The Holy Grail of antique Filipino domestic silver, according to the preeminent Filipiniana scholar Ramon N Villegas.

\nThese silver “paliteras” toothpick holders (as well as the equally exquisite “buyeras”/“platillas para buya”) were usually found in the estates of a certain generation of pre–1850 “hacendero” families in Pampanga, Bulacan, Manila, Laguna, Batangas, and Cavite.

\nA hollow silver pineapple dotted with holes for carved or silver toothpicks nestles in 3 gradated levels of foliage, all atop an urn, set on a plain plinth, which in turn is set on a bigger plinth with decorative piercework panels, supported on its four corners with lion paw feet… This particular example has an austere urn and distinct “catmon” flower and foliage designs on its decorative piercework panels. All the components are anchored inside through a metal or silver rod secured by a silver coin or screw. The classical pineapple “palitera” is frankly Napoleonic/French Empire in inspiration and echoes the late neoclassical designs of the French sculptor and bronzier Pierre–Philippe Thomire.

\nOld people in Pampanga, Bulacan, Batangas, and Laguna were told by their antecedents that these domestic silver items were produced by itinerant silversmiths who traveled from one affluent household to the next producing items customized according to the financial capabilities and various tastes of their clients… However, in the case of the classical pineapple “palitera,” there seemed to be a master silversmith with an atelier in Pampanga (specifically in Mexico/Masicu town, according to several old people in the 1970s) who produced these splendors and distributed them to the leading Pampangueno families of those times, owing to the relative uniformity of the few surviving specimens.

\nThe pineapple plant was imported to Las Islas Filipinas in the late 1500s by the Spanish colonizers from South America. By the 1800s, it had become a cross–cultural symbol of welcome, generosity, abundance, and wealth. The pineapple became desired decoration at the Filipino dinner table because of its positive associations. Its interpretation in solid silver as an elegant toothpick holder was its highest point as a mark of wealth.

\nIn the early days of postwar antique collecting in the 1950s, the silver pineapple “paliteras” were mostly found by antique aficionados in Pampanga “bahay–na–bato.” Logically, there was a concentration of “paliteras” found in the principal old towns of Mexico/Masicu, Bacolor, Guagua, Lubao. Martin I Tinio Jr liked to recall that a senior Hizon clan member reminisced that there had been 12 pineapple “paliteras” that had decorated their long, segmented dining table during fiestas in the (demolished) 1820s Hizon–Liwanag ancestral house in Mexico/Masicu. Those 12 “paliteras” devolved to Hizon descendants and to other big ancestral houses. A pair, along with an exceptional “buyera” with the initials “SHD,” landed in a beautiful Henson–Lacson ancestral house in San Fernando town, and their current whereabouts are unknown. A pair was purchased by Martin I Tinio Jr from a Hizon–Liwanag descendant, they are now in a private collection. There were also “paliteras” and a pair of “buyeras” in the grand Esteban Lazatin–Miguela de Ocampo ancestral house in Mexico. One “palitera” was inherited by the extremely affluent son Serafin Lazatin y de Ocampo (married to Encarnacion Singian y Torres) and he brought it home to San Fernando, where it remains to this day. In the mid–1970s, his daughter Carmen Singian Lazatin commissioned 2 faithful copies from the Saint Louis University– Baguio silversmiths so the original could have “companions,” like it did in the original Lazatin–de Ocampo ancestral house. Also in San Fernando, the extremely affluent Andres Eusebio estate had a pair of silver “paliteras” in the form of flowering shrubs on pots, current whereabouts unknown.

\nFar–flung Pampanga towns also yielded treasures. Famous barrio Sulipan in Apalit town had a pair (2 complete as well as random parts from a former set of 12) of classical pineapple “paliteras” from the 1848 Joaquin Arnedo–Maria Sioco estate; they are now in the Gonzalez–Arnedo estate and headed for the Museo De La Salle at the De La Salle University–Dasmarinas in Cavite. Also in barrio Sulipan from the 1821 Garcia estate, there was a rotund pineapple on a silver plinth which landed in the Dr Eleuterio Pascual collection and from there to the Paulino and Hetty Que collection. San Juan, Apalit had a pineapple on a plinth on a kamagong base, a “buyera” with gold initials, and an elegant urn for tobacco, legacies from Arnedo ancestors who lived on elegant Calle Sagunto (Calle Santo Cristo), Tondo, Manila; their current whereabouts are unknown. Ramon Villegas was able to acquire an unusual “palitera” with a two-headed man (Januarius?) on a plinth from Apalit town, it is now in the Paulino and Hetty Que collection. Santa Ana town had an amusing “palitera”: a dog with a basket in its mouth on a plinth from the Dizon estate, it was acquired by corporate executive and antique collector Rene Dizon and is now in a private collection. Arayat town had an exquisite pair of silver “Kulasisi” birds on shrubs atop rectangular plinths with articulated piercework panels from the 1880s Lino Reyes–Raymunda Soriano estate. They are now in San Francisco, USA.

\nMalolos, Bulacan’s most famous hostess to Spanish Governors– General, Archbishops of Manila, and “de alta sociedad,” Rosenda Mendoza de Tanchangco, originally from an affluent Santa Cruz, Manila family, had a pair (and possibly more) of splendid, outsized pineapple “paliteras” decorated with her cipher “RM” and baroque masques on their plinths. One devolved to an intellectual descendant famous in high academic circles and the other improbably found its way to a prominent Chinese–Filipino collector after having been owned by a grand heiress and before that by her good friend, a patrician aesthete. Rosenda Mendoza de Tanchangco had a “throne room” swathed in red velvet and passementerie with 2 throne chairs upholstered in red and gold specifically intended for the visits of the Spanish Governor–General and the Archbishop of Manila.

\nAffluent San Miguel de Mayumo town must have had many “paliteras” during the glory days of its rice and sugar “hacenderos” in the late 1800s–early 1900s. There was an unusual “palitera” with a small dog holding 2 floral baskets in its mouth standing on multiple plinths from the Sevilla–de Leon estate, current whereabouts unknown.

\nLegendary Taal town in Batangas was famous in antique aficionado circles for the big “baul” chest (which could fit 6 people) full of antique Filipino silver of the Ignacio Ilagan family at their famous ancestral house. The postwar traditional silversmith Gaudencio de Jesus (“Dencio”) and his son Ricardo (“Carding”) recalled the contents of that legendary Ilagan “baul”: silver flatware by the hundreds, silver trays of various sizes, bowls of various sizes, goblets, pitchers, candy dishes, multiple “buyeras,” “paliteras” in all forms, “mosqueteras” (mosquito net holders), and all sorts of elegant home accessories. The recollections of the de Jesus silversmiths were confimed by Martin Tinio who also saw that fantastic “baul” for himself. Current whereabouts unknown.

\n1880s Lipa town in Batangas waxed fantastically superrich from coffee exports at a time when all the other coffee plants of the world were ruined by disease. The coffee “hacenderos” of Lipa literally walked with diamond–encrusted shoes. The extremely affluent Celestino Solis family and their relatives the Catigbacs, Aguileras, Dimayugas, Luzes, and Mayos redefined the aristocratic Filipino lifestyle when they lived, not as rich Manilenos, but as rich Parisians and Londoners with all the requisite accoutrements. The Celestino Solis family was known for its Parisian gold table services, and for its gold–encrusted “paliteras” and gold toothpicks as well. 1880s Lipeno opulence was so otherworldly that even 1920s Ilonggo and Negrense razzle–dazzle could not eclipse it. Fortunately and surprisingly, despite the devastation of Lipa during World War II, much of its 1880s material culture survives with very rich, business–savvy descendants and they are currently conserved in Greenhills.

\nFar–flung Maragondon town in Cavite yielded a tall, silver “palitera” in the form of a 3–tiered epergne topped by a pineapple. It is the tallest “palitera” in existence and is now in a famous Chinese–Filipino collection. \nImprobably enough, antique aficionados Jose Ma Ricardo Panlilio (aka Joey Panlilio) and Dr Nicanor G Tiongson PhD (aka Nic Tiongson) remembered a pineapple “palitera” on a kamagong base displayed in the shop window of a haberdashery/tailoring shop along Claro M Recto avenue in Manila up to the mid–1970s. The owner refused to sell it to various interested parties, the “palitera” was probably inherited.

\nAtty Daniel Roderick Williams (Private Secretary to Commissioner Bernard Moses; later, became Secretary of the Commission) in his book “The Odyssey of the Philippine Commission” (A C MacClurg & Co, 1913) reminisced about a lavish dinner given for the Taft Commission (The Second Philippine Commission) by the Arnedo– Sioco family at their Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga residence in 1900:

\n “Our arrival was the signal for an early visit from the village presidente and other leading citizens... There was also a procession of native women bearing gifts of fruits, dulces and various eatables... We ate to the accompaniment of a native band which persisted in serenading us during the entire meal... Our reception was a royal one, the ritual of hospitality among these people reduced to a fine art... Dinner was served at eight, and it was indeed a feast to remember. A great mahogany table glittered with the finest china and linen, its entire length set off by massive bouquets, pyramids of fruits, wonderfully ornamented cakes and stands of most elaborately carved toothpicks. The number and variety of courses were amazing, creating a sense of wonder as to where and how they were all produced. There were wines of all kinds and color, the effect of which doubtless added to the conviviality of the occasion.”

\n“Paliteras” were used as centerpieces for “fiesta”/banquet tables. They were not displayed as is (as on modern dining tables); they were studded with silver toothpicks with flowers and leaves and wooden versions with exquisite whittlework which made them look like floral bouquets. The Luis Maria Araneta Collection has actual examples of 1800s whittlework toothpicks. The extremely affluent Celestino Solis household in 1880s Lipa, Batangas was known for gold–encrusted silver toothpick holders as well as gold toothpicks, among many other extravagances. The gentlemen guests would oftentimes take the whittlework toothpicks and use them as “boutonnieres.” Other table curiosities used with the “paliteras” and the French silver–and–crystal centerpieces were that of fantastic, French–style, Antonin Careme– inspired baskets of multicolored spun sugar with fruits -- resembling Murano and Bohemia glass --- which had to be ordered from expert confectioners. Distant Arayat town in Pampanga was the last bastion of this unbelievably exquisite sugar artistry and the Victorian craft finally disappeared in the 1960s.

\nBy the radically youthful 1960s, modern Filipinos had already forgotten about arcane “paliteras” and “buyeras,” and it took the irrepressible scholar Martin I Tinio Jr --- whose mind and heart were palpable survivors of the Spanish colonial era --- to remind people what their functions were in the 1800s. By his own admission, the revered Ramon N Villegas himself did not know what the small oval silver trays continually offered to him by agents were, until Tinio informed him in the late 1970s that those were “platillas para buya”/“buyeras” and were for the elegant serving of betel nut chews at receptions. Also by his own admission, Villegas was writing and promoting antique Filipino silver but it was only in 1993 when Brother Andrew Benjamin FSC of De La Salle University (Macario Diosdado Arnedo Gonzalez) sent him a pair of antique silver “paliteras” from the 1848 Arnedo–Sioco estate (Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga) for minor repairs that Villegas was finally able to study and dissect inarguably original “palitera” specimens. “Iba yung totoo!” (“Real is different!”) Villegas enthused.

\nAs with the top rarities the “Batangas Uno” mesa altar and the “Kamagong” aparador, Ramon N Villegas attempted to make a mental master list of extant silver “paliteras” and their collector–owners. The list was short: Paulino and Hetty Que, Richard Lopez, Atty Jose Mari Trenas, Xavier Pardo de Tavera Loinaz, Jaime C Laya, Antonio Gutierrez, Stanley Chan, Ramon Villegas, Marie–Theresa G Lammoglia–Virata (“Bebe”), Maria V Kalaw–Katigbak, Luis Ma Araneta, Consuelo Madrigal (“Chito”), the Serafin Lazatin–Encarnacion Singian estate, the Augusto Gonzalez–Rosario Arnedo estate, Tiongson family, et al. However, Villegas’ mental list has shifted considerably since his 2016 passing. In the 1990s, the most passionate collectors of antique silver “paliteras” were Richard B Lopez, Paulino & Hetty Que, and Xavier Pardo de Tavera Loinaz.

\nAcknowledgments:
\nMartin I Tinio Jr
\nRamon N Villegas Jr
\nMaria Cristina Ongpin–Roxas
\nPaulino & Hetty Que
\nRichard B Lopez
\nAtty Jose Mari Trenas
\nXavier Pardo de Tavera Loinaz","lot_group":"OBJET D' ARTS","lot_details_html":"

A “Palitera” / “Palillera”
(Toothpick Holder)
2nd quarter of the 19th century (1825–50)
solid silver (80%) from Mexican silver coins
552.6 grams
Pampanga, Bulacan
Base: 2 1/4” x 4” (5 cm x 10 cm)
Pedestal: 3” x 2” (8 cm x 5 cm)
Pineapple: H: 5 1/4” (13 cm)
                D: 5 1/4” (13 cm)
Total size H: 10 1/2” (27 cm)
              D: 5 1/2” (14 cm)

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