Ah Tay Bed
Matrimonial Bed In the Late Ah Tay Style
Late 19th – Early 20th century
(circa 1890 – 1910)
King Size
Narra
115” x 72” x 89” (292 cm x 183 cm x 226 cm)
Opening bid: P 1,000,000
Provenance:
A gift from President Manuel Roxas to the family of the present owner
Lot 60 of the Leon Gallery auction on 14 September 2019. Please see www.leon-gallery.com for more details.
This very elegant matrimonial bed of French Napoleon III / Second Empire derivation was crafted by the legendary Chinese – Filipino cabinetmaker Ah Tay. It features a headboard, footboard, and a half canopy embellished with Neoclassical, Neo – Renaissance, and Neo – Gothic motifs as well as small balusters and other terminals of fancy design. Fine and delicate carvings, almost whittlework, decorate the crests of both the headboard and footboard. The headboard and footboard both rest on turned, urn – shaped feet. The matrimonial bed is reminiscent of the "modern" and "progressive" furniture used by the Emperor Napoleon III and
the Empress Eugenie at the Chateau de Saint – Cloud from 1852 – 1870.
Ah Tay was the most successful Chinese – Filipino cabinetmaker
from the second half of the 19th century to the first quarter of the
20th century (circa 1850 – 1925). His store and workshop was
located on Calle Misericordia in Binondo, alongside many other
Chinese and Filipino cabinetmakers. He produced the most
beautiful and the most expensive Victorian – style furniture for
the elite families of Manila and the provinces. His client list was
populated by the city's richest and most influential families. Ah
Tay's furniture for the rich was marked by the choice of excellent
Philippine hardwoods, faultless scale and proportions, seamless
Chinese – style joinery, and the lifelike, almost kinetic carvings
of foliar and floral forms. Early in his career around the 1860s, he designed his trademark bed of mixed Neoclassical, Rococo Revival, Neo – Renaissance, and Neo – Gothic elements with halved – pumpkins serving as bases for the tester posts (now called by antique dealers and collectors as "Ah Tay" or even "Kalabasa" beds) and the quirky, amusing bed design spawned hundreds of inferior imitations from the north to the south of the islands.
He accepted big commissions like completely furnishing the palatial residence of Aniceto Lacson y Ledesma in Talisay, Negros Occidental. He also furnished the palatial home of Mariano Limjap y Barrera along Calle General Solano in San Miguel district, Manila. Also that of the highly – educated intellectual Ariston Bautista y Lin in Santa Cruz, Manila. The French – descended Fabie (Favie) – Tuason family in their block long palace on Calle Anloague in Binondo (now Juan Luna street). For the lordly Pedro A Paterno y Molo, Ah Tay created many pieces of furniture fit for a palace like Malacanan.
According to the owners, the antique matrimonial bed was a gift from President Manuel Roxas to their grandfather. (A similar matrimonial bed was owned by the spouses Jacobo Zobel y
Zangroniz and Trinidad de Ayala y Roxas. When Trinidad de Ayala viuda de Zobel left their Calle General Solano residence in the early 1920s, the bed was neglected and left to the elements. It was purchased by Arsenio Marasigan Escudero of San Pablo de los Montes town, Laguna and stored in his palatial ancestral home in the town. Fortunately, by sheer luck, it survived World War II. Postwar, in the early 1960s, it was reassembled in the master bedroom of the spouses Arsenio Marasigan Escudero and Rosario Averion Adap in the new, spacious, stairless
retirement home their 7 children — Consuelo, Caridad, Placido, Rosita, Conrado, Arsenio Jr, and Rosalia — had built for them in anticipation of old age.)
-Augusto Marcelino Reyes Gonzalez III
Ah Tay Bed
Matrimonial Bed In the Late Ah Tay Style
Late 19th – Early 20th century
(circa 1890 – 1910)
King Size
Narra
115” x 72” x 89” (292 cm x 183 cm x 226 cm)
Opening bid: P 1,000,000
Provenance:
A gift from President Manuel Roxas to the family of the present owner
Lot 60 of the Leon Gallery auction on 14 September 2019. Please see www.leon-gallery.com for more details.
This very elegant matrimonial bed of French Napoleon III / Second Empire derivation was crafted by the legendary Chinese – Filipino cabinetmaker Ah Tay. It features a headboard, footboard, and a half canopy embellished with Neoclassical, Neo – Renaissance, and Neo – Gothic motifs as well as small balusters and other terminals of fancy design. Fine and delicate carvings, almost whittlework, decorate the crests of both the headboard and footboard. The headboard and footboard both rest on turned, urn – shaped feet. The matrimonial bed is reminiscent of the "modern" and "progressive" furniture used by the Emperor Napoleon III and
the Empress Eugenie at the Chateau de Saint – Cloud from 1852 – 1870.
Ah Tay was the most successful Chinese – Filipino cabinetmaker
from the second half of the 19th century to the first quarter of the
20th century (circa 1850 – 1925). His store and workshop was
located on Calle Misericordia in Binondo, alongside many other
Chinese and Filipino cabinetmakers. He produced the most
beautiful and the most expensive Victorian – style furniture for
the elite families of Manila and the provinces. His client list was
populated by the city's richest and most influential families. Ah
Tay's furniture for the rich was marked by the choice of excellent
Philippine hardwoods, faultless scale and proportions, seamless
Chinese – style joinery, and the lifelike, almost kinetic carvings
of foliar and floral forms. Early in his career around the 1860s, he designed his trademark bed of mixed Neoclassical, Rococo Revival, Neo – Renaissance, and Neo – Gothic elements with halved – pumpkins serving as bases for the tester posts (now called by antique dealers and collectors as "Ah Tay" or even "Kalabasa" beds) and the quirky, amusing bed design spawned hundreds of inferior imitations from the north to the south of the islands.
He accepted big commissions like completely furnishing the palatial residence of Aniceto Lacson y Ledesma in Talisay, Negros Occidental. He also furnished the palatial home of Mariano Limjap y Barrera along Calle General Solano in San Miguel district, Manila. Also that of the highly – educated intellectual Ariston Bautista y Lin in Santa Cruz, Manila. The French – descended Fabie (Favie) – Tuason family in their block long palace on Calle Anloague in Binondo (now Juan Luna street). For the lordly Pedro A Paterno y Molo, Ah Tay created many pieces of furniture fit for a palace like Malacanan.
According to the owners, the antique matrimonial bed was a gift from President Manuel Roxas to their grandfather. (A similar matrimonial bed was owned by the spouses Jacobo Zobel y
Zangroniz and Trinidad de Ayala y Roxas. When Trinidad de Ayala viuda de Zobel left their Calle General Solano residence in the early 1920s, the bed was neglected and left to the elements. It was purchased by Arsenio Marasigan Escudero of San Pablo de los Montes town, Laguna and stored in his palatial ancestral home in the town. Fortunately, by sheer luck, it survived World War II. Postwar, in the early 1960s, it was reassembled in the master bedroom of the spouses Arsenio Marasigan Escudero and Rosario Averion Adap in the new, spacious, stairless
retirement home their 7 children — Consuelo, Caridad, Placido, Rosita, Conrado, Arsenio Jr, and Rosalia — had built for them in anticipation of old age.)
-Augusto Marcelino Reyes Gonzalez III