Altar Table
An “Olympic” Batangas Altar Table
3rd quarter of the 19th-century (1850–75)
Taal, Batangas
balayong wood (Afzelia rhomboides)
H: 37 1/2" (95 cm)
L: 22" (56 cm)
W: 49 1/2" (126 cm)
Opening bid: PHP 1,200,000
Property from the Don Eugenio “Geny” Lopez Jr. Collection
Provenance: Private collection, Batangas
ABOUT THE WORK
This neoclassical “mesa altar” altar table of “balayong” wood from Batangas province has a multipanel top with receding moldings on the sides. The tabletop is supported by the four legs of the casing, with additional support provided by the four, thick guilloche brackets attached to the upper sections of the legs which run through the height of the piece (colloquially termed “Olympic” by antique agents and dealers; the repeating guilloche patterns of interlocking circles/ovals actually began in the ancient Near East, popularized in Classical Greece and Rome, and were still used in Medieval design). There are four drawers, two on top and two below, applied with “kamagong” strips edged with lanite line inlay flanked by etched rosettes, as well as individual rosettes, to simulate deconstructed panels with concave corners. The front of the casing is embellished with equidistant bone inlay of etched diamond– shapes flanked by etched rosettes on the kamagong frames surrounding the drawers. Underneath the three drawers is a triangular “cenefa”/apron of the guilloche pattern. The sides of the casing are two horizontal solid pieces of “balayong.” The back of the casing are also two horizontal solid pieces of “balayong.” Supporting the four sides of the casing are elegant, turned baluster legs with multiple rings characteristic of Batangas. Much thought and effort were spent on this piece by the Batangueno master craftsmen who produced it. In serious Filipino art and antique collecting circles, the most revered trophy is a genuine “Batangas Uno” mesa altar of reddish–brown “balayong” wood (Afzelia rhomboides) accented with kamagong wood (Diospyros discolor/ Diospyros blancoi) on the tabletop and drawers. It is a Filipino–Batangas adaptation of a Chinese Ming dynasty altar table (1368–1644) with a framed tabletop, five drawers (three on top, two below), openwork flanges and aprons of unexpected French rococo– chinoiserie derivation (as in eighteenth century rococo altars in Philippine churches), four cabriole legs with ogee feet on stretchers with curved plinths. It is essentially both Sinitic and Filipino in character. The “Batangas Uno” mesa altar of the mid–eighteenth century was the apogee of Batangas cabinetmaking, preceded by less flamboyant rococo and baroque altar tables, and followed by the simpler “Batangas Dos” and neoclassical “Batangas Tuwid” models (terms proposed by Filipiniana scholar/jeweler/ antique dealer Ramon Nazareth Villegas and antique dealer/wood expert Osmundo Esguerra in the late 1970s for identification purposes). The preeminent “Batangas Uno” mesa altar notwithstanding, all well–made antique Batangas altar tables are prestige furnishings for the affluent and will remain so in the years to come. A deliberate Oriental geometry of scale and proportion, fine mature hardwoods, precise Chinese–style construction with classical mortise–and–dowel techniques, age–old durability were the hallmarks of antique Batangas altar tables which made them highly desirable by the big collectors. The first to appreciate them prewar were the patricians Antonio Bantug, Manuel de Yriarte, Dr Arturo Cabarrus de Santos, and Architect Luis Maria Zaragoza Araneta. One of the first to display them in contemporary interiors postwar was Batangas aristocrat and interior decorator Rosario Mayo Dimayuga–Luz (mother of artist Arturo Dimayuga Luz), who mixed them with elegant new furniture by Gonzalo Puyat and Sisenando Baluyut. Architect Leandro Valencia Locsin and heiress wife Cecilia Araneta Yulo as well as their collector contemporaries Jaime Pfitz Zobel de Ayala and Beatriz Barcon Miranda, Manuel Unchuan Agustines and Rosarito Prieto Caro, and Marie–Theresa Gallardo Lammoglia – Virata (Mrs Leonides Sarao Virata) made them fashionable in the early 1960s, with Locsin installing a beautiful antique Batangas altar table, usually sourced from pioneer antique dealer Nene Cortes --- whether Batangas Uno, Batangas Dos, or Batangas Tuwid (terms coined by Ramon Villegas and Osmundo Esguerra in the late 1970s) --- in each prestigious residential project as a distinct signature. During the heady collecting days of the early 1980s, when Jaime C Laya (for the Central Bank of the Philippines and the Intramuros Administration), Paulino Que, Antonio Tanchoco Gutierrez, Romeo Jorge, and Richard Barnes Lopez were the emerging big collectors, Filipiniana scholar/jeweler/ antique dealer Ramon Villegas and antique dealer/wood expert Osmundo Esguerra --- who both had tony shops at the Manila Garden Hotel (now the Dusit Hotel) --- mentored them on the classic beauty and quiet refinements of antique Batangas furniture, spurring a competitive demand for decades to come. (Augusto Marcelino Reyes Gonzalez III)
Lot 108 of the Leon Gallery online and live auction on 9 March 2024. Please see leon-gallery.com for more information.
Altar Table
An “Olympic” Batangas Altar Table
3rd quarter of the 19th-century (1850–75)
Taal, Batangas
balayong wood (Afzelia rhomboides)
H: 37 1/2" (95 cm)
L: 22" (56 cm)
W: 49 1/2" (126 cm)
Opening bid: PHP 1,200,000
Property from the Don Eugenio “Geny” Lopez Jr. Collection
Provenance: Private collection, Batangas
ABOUT THE WORK
This neoclassical “mesa altar” altar table of “balayong” wood from Batangas province has a multipanel top with receding moldings on the sides. The tabletop is supported by the four legs of the casing, with additional support provided by the four, thick guilloche brackets attached to the upper sections of the legs which run through the height of the piece (colloquially termed “Olympic” by antique agents and dealers; the repeating guilloche patterns of interlocking circles/ovals actually began in the ancient Near East, popularized in Classical Greece and Rome, and were still used in Medieval design). There are four drawers, two on top and two below, applied with “kamagong” strips edged with lanite line inlay flanked by etched rosettes, as well as individual rosettes, to simulate deconstructed panels with concave corners. The front of the casing is embellished with equidistant bone inlay of etched diamond– shapes flanked by etched rosettes on the kamagong frames surrounding the drawers. Underneath the three drawers is a triangular “cenefa”/apron of the guilloche pattern. The sides of the casing are two horizontal solid pieces of “balayong.” The back of the casing are also two horizontal solid pieces of “balayong.” Supporting the four sides of the casing are elegant, turned baluster legs with multiple rings characteristic of Batangas. Much thought and effort were spent on this piece by the Batangueno master craftsmen who produced it. In serious Filipino art and antique collecting circles, the most revered trophy is a genuine “Batangas Uno” mesa altar of reddish–brown “balayong” wood (Afzelia rhomboides) accented with kamagong wood (Diospyros discolor/ Diospyros blancoi) on the tabletop and drawers. It is a Filipino–Batangas adaptation of a Chinese Ming dynasty altar table (1368–1644) with a framed tabletop, five drawers (three on top, two below), openwork flanges and aprons of unexpected French rococo– chinoiserie derivation (as in eighteenth century rococo altars in Philippine churches), four cabriole legs with ogee feet on stretchers with curved plinths. It is essentially both Sinitic and Filipino in character. The “Batangas Uno” mesa altar of the mid–eighteenth century was the apogee of Batangas cabinetmaking, preceded by less flamboyant rococo and baroque altar tables, and followed by the simpler “Batangas Dos” and neoclassical “Batangas Tuwid” models (terms proposed by Filipiniana scholar/jeweler/ antique dealer Ramon Nazareth Villegas and antique dealer/wood expert Osmundo Esguerra in the late 1970s for identification purposes). The preeminent “Batangas Uno” mesa altar notwithstanding, all well–made antique Batangas altar tables are prestige furnishings for the affluent and will remain so in the years to come. A deliberate Oriental geometry of scale and proportion, fine mature hardwoods, precise Chinese–style construction with classical mortise–and–dowel techniques, age–old durability were the hallmarks of antique Batangas altar tables which made them highly desirable by the big collectors. The first to appreciate them prewar were the patricians Antonio Bantug, Manuel de Yriarte, Dr Arturo Cabarrus de Santos, and Architect Luis Maria Zaragoza Araneta. One of the first to display them in contemporary interiors postwar was Batangas aristocrat and interior decorator Rosario Mayo Dimayuga–Luz (mother of artist Arturo Dimayuga Luz), who mixed them with elegant new furniture by Gonzalo Puyat and Sisenando Baluyut. Architect Leandro Valencia Locsin and heiress wife Cecilia Araneta Yulo as well as their collector contemporaries Jaime Pfitz Zobel de Ayala and Beatriz Barcon Miranda, Manuel Unchuan Agustines and Rosarito Prieto Caro, and Marie–Theresa Gallardo Lammoglia – Virata (Mrs Leonides Sarao Virata) made them fashionable in the early 1960s, with Locsin installing a beautiful antique Batangas altar table, usually sourced from pioneer antique dealer Nene Cortes --- whether Batangas Uno, Batangas Dos, or Batangas Tuwid (terms coined by Ramon Villegas and Osmundo Esguerra in the late 1970s) --- in each prestigious residential project as a distinct signature. During the heady collecting days of the early 1980s, when Jaime C Laya (for the Central Bank of the Philippines and the Intramuros Administration), Paulino Que, Antonio Tanchoco Gutierrez, Romeo Jorge, and Richard Barnes Lopez were the emerging big collectors, Filipiniana scholar/jeweler/ antique dealer Ramon Villegas and antique dealer/wood expert Osmundo Esguerra --- who both had tony shops at the Manila Garden Hotel (now the Dusit Hotel) --- mentored them on the classic beauty and quiet refinements of antique Batangas furniture, spurring a competitive demand for decades to come. (Augusto Marcelino Reyes Gonzalez III)
Lot 108 of the Leon Gallery online and live auction on 9 March 2024. Please see leon-gallery.com for more information.