PROPERTY FORMERLY IN THE ROMEO JORGE COLLECTION
Segmented Dining Table
last quarter of the 19th century (1875 – 1899)Binondo, Manila
“golden narra” wood (Pterocarpus indicus)
H: 31" (79 cm)L: 55" (140 cm)W: 58" (147 cm)


PROVENANCEPrivate collection, Manila.



WRITE UP:
This elegant Victorian table is composed of the two ends of an opulent 1880s segmented dining table that had twelve leaves, seating twenty–four to twenty –six people at a time. The single tabletops are solid, 2” inch– thick (5.08 cm) pieces of “golden narra” wood supported by four feet of large, outward C–scrolls with crisply carved foliar and floral motifs connected at their midpoints by stylized braces. These magnificent dining tables for very rich clients were produced during the last quarter of the nineteenth century (1875–1899) by master Sangley/Chinese and Filipino craftsmen at their workshops and stores that lined Calle Misericordia in Binondo, Manila. There are only three other segmented dining tables of this opulent 1880s type known to exist: 1) The long, segmented dining table of Capitan Maximo Molo Agustin Paterno y Yamson and Dona Teodora Devera Ignacio y Pineda in their block–long mansion on Calle San Roque, Santa Cruz, Manila purchased for the 1885 renovations; the parts were distributed among various Paterno–Devera Ignacio heirs in the 1920s; 2) The long, segmented dining table of Don Aniceto Lacson y Ledesma and Dona Rosario Araneta y Cabunsol at their 1880 “Casa Grande” in Talisay, Negros Occidental; currently with their Rosello–Claparols descendants; 3) The long, segmented dining table used for the signing of the 1899 Malolos Constitution, purchased by Central Bank Governor Jaime C Laya from top antique dealer Severina de Asis, currently in the BSP Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas collection. The Romeo Jorge table consists of the ends of a fourth opulent, segmented dining table. Filipiniana scholar Martin Imperial Tinio Jr postulated that segmented dining tables reached their popularity in the 1880s and that may well be true. However, segmented dining tables --- specially those with the earlier reeded and fluted legs --- were already in widespread use by the 1850s in Manila and Central Luzon. An 1850s watercolor by Jose Honorato Lozano in the Carl Johann Karuth album in the Ayala Museum collection depicts the grand house of Don Jacobo Zobel Hinsch the pharmacist in Intramuros with an impressive segmented dining table with reeded legs in a comedor which also had a tester bed. There are several examples of segmented dining tables in pre–1880 houses: among them the 1830 Gonzalez–de los Angeles (on the site of the present Iglesia ni Cristo), the 1860 Fores, the 1870 Gonzalez–Carrillo (Museo ng Baliuag) residences in Baliuag, Bulacan; the 1812 Bautista–Tanjosoy (which became de los Santos–Bautista) and the 1840 del Rosario–Tanchangco (which became Jacinto–del Rosario) residences in barrio Barasoain, Malolos, Bulacan; the 1821 Garcia–Yumul, the 1830 Sioco–Carlos (which became Escaler–Sioco), and the 1848 Arnedo–Sioco residences in old barrio Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga.