{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":50210,"auction_id":99,"set_id":131,"lot_number":"120","artist":"Comoda de Poste","title":null,"starting_price":800000,"signed_dated":"Baliuag, Bulacan \nthird quarter of the nineteenth century (1850–75)","medium":"Golden narra wood, Carabao bone, lanite wood, and kamagong wood inlays","size":"H: 44 1/2\" (113 cm) W: 23 1/4\" (59 cm) L: 54\" (137 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"An old family from Bulacan","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"This elegant example of a Baliuag, Bulacan “comoda de poste” (a colloquialization popularized by antique dealers and agents for what is basically a simple “comoda” with four drawers) with restrained inlay decoration from the middle of the nineteenth century has a top of a single piece of golden narra wood, decorated on its three edges by strips of kamagong wood overlaid with a running pattern of bone diamonds. The two top drawers are decorated with kamagong line inlay simulating panels with convex sides, which are in turn accented with kamagong triangles; these are flanked by two small drawers for candles. All the keyholes of the drawers are underscored with festoons of kamagong line inlay accented with kamagong triangles while their tops are punctuated with a bone triangle faintly reminiscent of Masonic symbology. The top two sides of the comoda are also decorated with kamagong line inlay simulating panels with convex sides, which are in turn accented with kamagong triangles. There are four conventional drawers underneath, the case flanked by four turned and thinly–reeded kamagong columns attached under the candle drawers and to the apron, the case set on an apron and supported by four stylized urn feet; the visible sides of the plinths above the four urn feet are decorated with stylized flowers composed of bone diamonds and triangles. The four drawers are embellished with kamagong line inlays simulating panels with concave corners; inside the panels, the two small knobs of each drawer rendered in kamagong are set on inlays of lanite spokes enclosed by starlike forms of kamagong line inlay in the form of spider webs with their concave edges (another Masonic allusion?). The horizontal and vertical drawer surrounds are inlaid with discreet strips of kamagong edged with lanite wood. Both lower sides of the comoda are also embellished with bone and kamagong line inlay simulating panels with concave corners. Under the four drawers is a base exactly like the top, adorned on its three edges by a strip of kamagong with a running pattern of bone diamonds; as above, so below. Underneath the base is an apron embellished with two horizontal strips of kamagong edged with lanite enclosed by kamagong line inlay centered by a stylized flower composed of bone diamonds and triangles (similar to those inlaid on the plinths). The back of the comoda is composed of three vertical planks of the same golden narra wood. The general look of this Baliuag comoda de poste is reminiscent of an American Federal commode. Given its unusual inlay patterns with Masonic resonance, it is a customized piece crafted for its first owner.
Despite Las Islas Filipinas being a colony of Madre Espana, the United States of America was the islands’ biggest trading partner during the 1800s. The big American trading companies established their headquarters and bonded warehouses in Binondo and put up satellite offices and warehouses in the provinces --- Russell & Co, Heard & Co, Olyphant & Co, Perkins & Co, WS Wetmore & Co, et al. The enterprising and prosperous Americans --- with a taste for the unusual and exotic that would sell well in their homeland (mainly the East Coast states) --- partnered with the Baliuag craftsmen in the early 1800s and started producing American Federal–style furniture of durable narra wood adorned with carabao bone, kamagong wood, and lanite wood (a very few with nacre/ mother–of–pearl, probably contributions of local Chinese, Indian, and Filipino resident craftsmen). Chairs, armchairs, altar cabinets, commodes, dropfront desks, sewing tables, beds, wardrobes, small center tables, occasional tables, segmented dining tables, and sideboards all adorned with carabao bone and kamagong inlays were manufactured, principally for the domestic market. Many of the better examples were eagerly purchased by American and European businessmen and their wives as souvenirs before returning to their homeland.
An amusing anecdote that comes down from the Philippine–American War of 1899 relates that Major– General Henry W Lawton and his lieutenants found, upon their arrival, that the Baliuag residents had laid out new and old Baliuag furniture --- all of them beautiful --- for sale at the San Agustin parish church patio. The townsfolk were sure that the Americans liked them because they had always been the best clients, even during the Spanish times. The better pieces were promptly purchased by Lawton and his officers. That was how strong the American connection and predilection for Baliuag–style furniture was. By contrast, the fleeing General Aguinaldo and his men had managed to take select furniture from Baliuag’s “principalia” houses as they left the town --- Gonzalez (an ornate Italian “pietra dura” center table), Rustia, (a beautiful fully–inlaid cabinet), Tiongson, Ponce, Fores, et al.
American Federal style, with its simple lines and consistent symmetry, was the basis for Baliuag–style furniture. It derived inspiration from the neoclassical work of the English cabinetmakers of the eighteenth century --- Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite, and Thomas Sheraton. Through inevitable cultural exchanges, the English were inspired by the developments in France with the work of the ebenistes to the French Crown --- Jean–Francois Oeben, Jean–Henri Riesener, Bernard van Risenburgh II, Martin Carlin, Adam Weisweiler, et al.
\nRamon N Villegas wrote about the Bulacan–Pampanga tradition of Philippine furniture, also known as the Baliwag style: “Representative of the Bulacan–Pampanga tradition, popularly known as the Baliwag style, is the sideboard, the extendable dining table with matching chairs, the chest of drawers, and the large comoda. The style makes use of narra and kamagong in combination, as well as inlaid ornamentation with bone and contrasting woods.”
“The style may have originated from an atelier in the town of Baliwag, Bulacan, and diffused from there (up to Penaranda, Nueva Ecija, as Tinio points out; Penaranda must have been at the end of a riverine exchange system). The Bulacan–Pampanga tradition is based on neoclassicism as interpreted by the British furniture stylists, particularly Thomas Sheraton. Great Britain’s was by then the largest economic system in the world, and Bulacan–Pampanga sugar was passing through trading houses dealing with the English. Sojourns and education may have also been agencies through which British influence was absorbed. Some Filipinos are known to have studied in London and in Calcutta, India, which was a British colony then.”
“The Bulacan–Pampanga tradition also produced case furniture with the same austere lines. There are examples of plain chests of drawers on bracket feet and with no decoration at all. Some have very restrained inlay work to outline the drawers. At the high point of the style, the drawers were ornamented with garlands of leaves and flowers and bordered with matang–pusa and hilis–kalamay.” by AUGUSTO MARCELINO REYES GONZALEZ III","lot_group":"FURNITURE","lot_details_html":"
Comoda de Poste Baliuag, Bulacan third quarter of the nineteenth century (1850–75) Golden narra wood, Carabao bone, lanite wood, and kamagong wood inlays H: 44 1/2\" (113 cm) W: 23 1/4\" (59 cm) L: 54\" (137 cm)