PROPERTY FROM THE BARRERA-VERZOSA FAMILY
A Large Round Table with Six Armchairs
roundtable: third quarter of the 19th century (1850 – 1875)
round table: Golden narra wood (“Pterocarpus indicus”)
armchairs: Kamagong wood (“Diospyros discolor”/“Diospyros blancoi”)
chair: height: 31 1/2" (80 cm)diameter: 55" (140 cm)
armchairs: height: 33 1/2" (85 cm) width: 20 1/2" (52 cm) length: 18" (46 cm)


PROVENANCE: Private collection, Binondo, Manila Ambassador Sergio Angeles Barrera; Supreme Court Associate Justice and Secretary of Justice Jesus Gonzalo Barrera y Alimurung; Don Marciano Barrera and Dona Valentina Alimurung



This large round table of golden narra wood from 1850–75 has an impressive “sola pieza” one–piece top with molded edging supported by a thick “cenefa” apron. Within the center of the cenefa, a thick square plate set between a pair of thick horizontal bars which act as stretchers inside the cenefa connect the top to a substantial tripod base. The trunk is composed of a squash–shaped urn (hence, the colloquial term “kalabasa”) set on top of a turned, rounded base from which emerge three legs with acanthus scrolls terminating in ball–and–claw feet. The three feet are secured to the turned base by a wooden underplate which is sometimes, as in the case of the heavier marbletops, reinforced by thick flat iron bars. The design of the tripod base is loosely derived from the French Louis– Philippe style (1830–48). In its original setting during the second half of the nineteenth century (1850–99), this large round table of golden narra wood was usually placed as an all–purpose table at the center of a “caida” entrance hall which was also the family room in a “bahay–na–bato”; it was also sometimes placed by an airy window. The six armchairs of lustrous kamagong wood from the 1880s have curved, concave backrests, backsplats with carved garlands, scrolled arms, and tapering outcurved legs. They are in the Neoclassical Greek Revivalist style, patterned after the classical Greek “klismos” chair, as derived from the designs of the American–Scottish cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe (active 1792–1847). In their original setting during the second half of the nineteenth century (1850–99), these armchairs were usually placed as a suite flanking round center tables, with wooden or marble tops, positioned in the middle of the room or by an airy window in the “caida” entrance hall or family room. They were also placed in rows against the walls, eighteenth century style. Given the Barrera y Alimurung provenance and the age of these pieces, it is most likely that this large round table and the six armchairs were once part of the furnishings of a “caida” entrance hall or family room in an early Barrera y Alimurung “bahay–na–bato” residence in Bacolor, Pampanga.