{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":3525,"auction_id":6,"set_id":8,"lot_number":"126","artist":"Marcos del Rosario Ortega (active 2nd half of the 19th century)","title":"George M. Curtis (Letras y Figuras)","starting_price":2000000,"signed_dated":"signed M. Ortega (lower right) dated 14 Junio 1877","medium":"watercolor on paper","size":"16\" x 21 1/2\" (41 cm x 54 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private Collection, USA","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Manila - Massachusetts \nArtwork of Status\nby LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL<br /><br />A remarkable artwork, the George M. Curtis in the style of ‘Letras y Figuras’, which employs the medieval technique of spelling out letters using human figures, is an important touchstone of a period of trade that mirrored the Spanish galleons.<br /><br /> ‘Letras y Figuras’ are particularly sought after since they are distinctly original and one of a kind, by definition bearing only a single patron’s name — as opposed to the other well-known kind of art of the same period known as ‘Tipos del Pais” which were created in recurring themes such as fishermen, mestizas bathing, and gentlemen farmers. Jose Honorato Lozano (1821- 1885) and Justiniano Asuncion (1816-1901) were well-known masters of both kinds of these exquisite artworks.<br /><br /> Very few of their works extant, however, are signed. What makes the George M. Curtis, even more distinct is that it bears the signature of the artist, Marcos Ortega y del Rosario. It is written in the finest hand “por M. Ortega”, (by M. Ortega.) One other work signed by him, with the name ‘Manuel Miramon’, is known to exist, as well as another in the Ynchausti Collection. Ortega was from Binondo and married a Spanish mestiza named Arcadia Torres.<br /><br />  Both the Letras y Figuras and the Tipos del Pais were collected as ‘trophies of trade’, a term originated by the scholar Florina Capistrano Baker who studied them closely as the artistic status symbols of an elite that profited from the trade between the Philippines and the eastern seaboard of the United States.<br /><br /> Capistrano-Baker would call this the “Manila-Masachusetts Trade” and describe it as follows: <br /><br /><br />“The Manila-Massachusetts trade is little known but had a significant impact on American aesthetics of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with the introduction of new materials, products, and art forms. American interest in the Asia-Pacific region sprang partly from whaling and the lucrative China Trade.<br /><br /> “Two Massachusetts companies were firmly established in Manila by the 1820s. Peele, Hubbell & Co. supplied American and European markets with Philippine sugar, indigo, and hemp. The other firm, Russell & Sturgis,  was bound by family ties to American businesses in Canton and shipped Philippine sugar and molasses to America for the rum distilleries. Most of Manila’s indigo went to New England textile factories. Philippine hides were exported for the American shoe industry, and the indigenous Manila hemp (abaca) used to manufacture marine cordage became the main staple of trade with Salem.<br /><br /> “Beyond the trade in hemp, art forms such as souvenir watercolors flourished with increased wealth at home and abroad. These luxury objects were of more limited distribution, restricted to a small circle of wealthy travelers, merchants, and elite Filipino families, and visually marked the status, wealth, accomplishments, and ambitions of their owners.”<br /><br /><br />Fittingly, the artwork at hand, captures the maritime trade on the Bahia de Manila (or Manila Bay) and the Rio Pasig (Pasig River) which is alive with all manner of vessels, from ships flying the Spanish colors, a Chinese junk, as well as an American flag, all these references to the wide interests of the Russel Sturgis houses in Manila, Canton and Massachusetts. The Puente de Espan?a (Bridge of Spain) is also depicted. Inhabiting the painting are Filipinos busy at work, tending fields and pounding rice, hanging laundry and tending to the chickens, picking mangoes and hawking the fruit. There is a housewife cooking a meal and a young boy sleeping among the many domestic vignettes.<br /><br /> The painting is extraordinarily detailed, showing the outlines of carriages and people crossing the Puente, the cargo of the tiny cascos on the river, and the forgotten monument on the  Paseo, on a summer’s day in June 1877.<br /><br /> By tradition, the patron’s face and figure would be included in one of the Letras y Figuras scenes. There is one likely candidate, wreathed in the ‘O’ formed by verdant shrubbery and several wooden barrels, (possibly of molasses, a prime export to the Massachusetts rum makers.) He is a sharp-nosed man (captured in profile) wearing a pith helmet and leading a brown horse.<br /><br />Could this be Mr. Curtis himself? (Pith helmets, incidentally, are Spanish adaptations of the Filipino salacot.)<br /><br /> The book “Prominent Families of New York” published in 1898 by The Historical Society of New York lists a Mrs. George William Curtis. The Curtis family of Massachusetts dates back to 1635 when the first Puritan ancestor with the name arrived on American shores. They would be chiefly soldiers and officers who would marry into distinguished banking and political families. On record is a George William Curtis, born in 1824 who would study in Europe, write for Harper’s Weekly, and become regent of the University of New York.<br /><br /> His path would cross with the Massachusetts mandarins when he would marry Anna Shaw, whose grandparents on her maternal side were Nathan Russell Sturgis Sr. married to Elizabeth Parkman. George Curtis’ mother-in-law would thus be the sister of the famous trader Russel Sturgis.<br /><br /> Russel Sturgis (1805-1887) would become one of the most successful traders in Asia, establishing the houses of Russel Sturgis in both Canton and Manila as well as in North America. He would, in fact, live in the Philippines for a long period, which ended only upon the death of his wife and his return to Boston for a short period of time. He would return again and again to Asia but would eventually be wooed away with the offer to head Barings Bank in London. <br /><br />The watercolor bearing the name of one of his trusted lieutenants is a window into the world of old Manila and the crossroads in which it lay.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":3800000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":3800000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":4438400,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":3776,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/126.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":3775,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/6/8/lot/126a.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[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":125,"next":127,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}