Santos Series 02: San Miguel

Last week, I chanced upon my in dealer's shop here in the Philippine city of Puerto Buenvivir, in the province of  Montemayor (of course, pseudonyms lang tayo dito) a nice vintage santo.  Immediately I knew it was a San Miguel. I salivated and my dealer saw it and damn, I could only nudge the price 10% cheaper.  I was thinking that such a choice piece will fly off the shelf as soon as another collector comes in. In fact, a buena familia customer who was inside the shop was eyeing this piece too. Before she swooped down and bought the antique, I immediately lifted it and took my sweet time in examining it (until the lady left the premises of course).  My dealer told me that this particular piece arrived just today and the only persons who have seen this was me and the lady.  She added that the item came from Bantayan island but carved in Bohol or vice versa.  I was skeptical and barely managed to keep my eyeballs from rolling. Provenance be damned.

St. Michael (San Miguel) is for me one of the more desirable type of santos there is, for two simple reasons: (1) it's rare to find a table top statue and (2) the ensemble of an angel killing a crouched demon is powerful and beautiful.  Imagine a supernatural diety killing a demon! It evokes the mystical feel in our Catholic faith of good triumphing over evil.  This same feeling goes for the Immaculate Conception with Mary trampling a snake.

There are a few depictions of St. Michael as a table top set. It may be because not a lot of families wanted to have an object with a crouched devil inside their homes. (Thanks to Alex Castro for the insight.) If indeed they are available, either they are modern fakes done in plaster or are large figures destined for church niches. And if they're really tabletop antiques, they must have been bought by wealthy Buena Familias. 

It takes a lot of luck and serendipity to stumble upon a piece.  This is why even if the patina of my item does not hark to the Spanish times, I suspect this is more than 50 years old.  I think this was made between the late 19th century and before the 60s.  The enamel pain is highly suspect, but the fact that the entire thing was carved out from wood with the white chalky gesso or escayola exposed means that this was made during the time when there were a lot of santeros around. Thus, I place this during the American period and the decade after the war.

It may not be really a great antique, but this San Miguel pleases me to no end. Because, in the end, you as a collector must derive pleasure in your purchases and not on the potential financial gain.

Book 04: Chinese Pottery In the Philippines

A lot of collectors of ceramics eschew buying from Ebay because of the high incidence of fraud and forgery.  However, the site can still be a goldmine when it comes to vintage ceramic literature.  A lot of "Out-of-Print" volumes on Oriental ceramics are still available but prices can be expensive. One such book is Spink's Thai Ceramics published by the Siam Society during the 60s which is reasonably priced on Amazon and purchasing one is a good investment move. Any ceramic book for that matter is ipso facto a wise decision. You get to learn the forms, the motifs, the glazes from these books which will give you an added arsenal against fakes and repairs.

Sometimes, a diamond of a book will slip through the cracks.  In this case, I was able to purchase the original volume of Fay-Cooper Cole's "Chinese Pottery in the Philippines" (Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 162, July 1912) for $10. The condition of the publication is remarkable; actually in mint condition.

 
The contents of which is very telling about the colonial (read: American) state of affairs when it came to archaeology, anthropology and collecting.  These Americans had a field day going around the archipelago sourcing ceramics from accidentally discovered burial sites to ceramic jars used by the highland tribes for their ceremonies.  Not so much about the feeding frenzy of the 60s.  This period was so nebulous that if it were not for these intrepid Americans, our view on history would be stuck in Hispanic mud.  

Anyway, this tome is a keeper for all collectors delving into Philippine trade ceramics.  If you can find one, don't let it get away.

I'm sure now all has been looted already.

Download PDF file for easy reading:

https://archive.org/details/cu31924023483559
http://www.jstor.org/stable/29782136

Some Thoughts on Ming? Celadon Wares

Bowl 1.

Bowl 1. Notice the flower motif on the base.

Bowl 1. The mark where the clay disk was placed is still visible. This is to stack the bowl on top of the next.

 These three grey-green and bluish green celadons were collected in separate instances. In each instance, I had to insist of getting the piece that has no damage or repair.  Too much previous tuition fees have forced me to be more stringent in my pickings.

I love looking at these three celadons especially when they're all in a row. They look modern in their simplicity but their greenness exude a certain "restrained" elegance.  The feel of the glaze is unctuous, the craqleur nice and spontaneous and the historicity of the item makes me giddy.  Speaking of historicity, picking up, holding it and feeling every smooth texture and earthy roughness makes me think of the tedious and ingenious process the Chinese did in making Celadon and the specialness of the Philippines as  a rich (and reasonably cheap) repository of burial ceramics. 

 

Bowl 2. Smallest of the lot. Notice the irregular glaze.

Bowl 2.

Bowl 2.

  We know that Celadon wares, be it white, green or blue-green usually come from the Song Dynasty.  A lot of collectors and dealers clump them together into this period. I too have been careless in assuming that this was so but I realized that this is an entirely huge field spanning the Song to the Yuan to the middle Ming Dynasties, and encompassing Thailand during the Ming Gap period. And with the periods went the various types of motifs used.

Bowl 3.  Same clay disk mark

Bowl. 3

If you go to the Koh Antiques Site (see link column) you will find examples pertaining to the Northern and Southern Song dynasty Celadons. Most have incised lotus patterns on the sides. In the case of my bowls, the striated lines form the chrysanthemum motif which can be found in Ming dynasty Celadons. This might explain why one of these bowls was part of a cache of burial ceramics that included Ming blue & white plates. It's unlikely that a person's lifetime accumulation spans several centuries with Song and Ming artifacts mingling together in a single plot. So, I think these were from the same time frame. Unless... unless... this is not Ming but rather Thai Celadon.  One of the pieces found in the book Chinese Celadons showed a similar striated bowl coming from Sawankhalok, Thailand.  This is the reason we ought to research on our items. It's a good thing this entry was inside Locsin's Oriental Ceramics Discovered in the Philippines:

So it's positive to be Ming. Nevertheless, what is important is the NOW- how these pieces affect me in a very pleasurable and positive way. I hope your collection does that to you too. Happy Antiquing!