The Fabella Kamagong Aparador
2nd Quarter of the 19th Century
Kamagong, Lanite, Carabao Bone & Silver
H: 92” x L : 52” x L : 24” (234 cm x 132 cm x 61 cm)
Opening bid: P 2,200,000
Provenance:
Heirs of Dr. Jose Fernandez Fabella
Lot 42 of the Leon Gallery auction on 8 September 2018. Please see leon-gallery.com/ for more information.
Kamagong furniture was only for the very rich. Aside from the material being very hard to find, the density and hardness of the wood made it extremely difficult to work with. Artisans working with kamagong had to sharpen their tools almost every half hour and a wrong move during carving usually resulted in a chipped chisel blade. Furthermore, kamagong sawdust was very fine and tended to get into the pores of the skin, making it itch. This towering cabinet, made entirely of kamagong, is the tallest that has ever come into the market and is said to be one of a pair. It has a wide base supported at the corners by four turned, vase-shaped feet surmounted by three rings and narrow, straight aprons at the sides and an apron board in front in the shape of an inverted truncated pediment. The aprons are bordered with parallel lanite line-inlay and have a half-round molding at the bottom.
A diamond-shaped star with rays composed of half lanite and half kamagong decorates the center of the apron board in front. The base of the cabinet extends slightly over the front and sides of the carcass and has a semicircular protrusion on either side that corresponds to the shape of the engaged colonnette above it. The surface of the extension is incised with a molding, while the sides are inlaid with a series of carabao-bone discs with a dot in the center.
The front of the cabinet consists of a pair of framed door panels, flanked on either side by an engaged attenuated colonnette on a turned, urn-shaped base and topped by a stylized Corinthian capital. The door frames, embellished at each edge with a border of lanite line-inlay, each have a large turned kamagong pull inlaid with a silver disc at the center. The right door has an oval silver keyhole shield. The door panels consist of several narrow kamagong planks ingeniously joined together to form a pleasing pattern of light and dark wood. The fact that the joints of the door panels are not discernible attests to the skill of the artisan who made the cabinet.
When opened, four shelves are revealed, but, strangely, there are no drawers. The sides of the cabinet are solid planks decorated with parallel lanite line-inlay in the form of a large oblong with quadrant corners. The entablature follows the rectangular shape of the carcass and is topped with a cymatium molding inlaid at the top with a row of bone discs similar to that found on the base of the cabinet.
At each corner of the entablature is a narrow kamagong plinth, line-inlaid on their exposed sides with lanite in an oblong design with quadrant corners. A turned, urn shaped finial terminates the plinth. Between the plinths, in front and at the sides, are narrow horizontal panels line-inlaid with a lanite border. Within this border are several large overlapping diamond-shaped lozenges of lanite line-inlay decorated at the center with a light-colored kamagong lozenge inlaid with a stellar pattern of the same shape but with the rays composed half of kamagongand half of carabao bone.
The cabinet belonged to Jose Fernandez Fabella who was born in Pagsanjan, Laguna to one of the town’s leading families. After completing his secondary education at the Ateneo de Manila, he enrolled at the Philippine Normal College for a preparatory course in medicine. He obtained his medical degree in 1912 at Rush Medical College, formerly affiliated with the University of Chicago, and worked as an intern, and later, as resident physician at the Children’s Free Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He took postgraduate courses in children’s diseases at ChariteKrankenhaus in Berlin, Germany in 1914 and at the New York Post Graduate Medical School in 1920.
On his return to the Philippines, Fabella was appointed secretary of the Philippine Islands Anti-Tuberculosis Society from 1914-16 and served as the first secretary, and later as executive director of the Public Welfare Board from 1914-1921. He served as the Public Welfare Commissioner before he became the first Director of the Bureau of Health in 1936 and the first secretary of the Department of Health and Public Welfare in 1941. During his stint in government, he initiated the coordination and regulations of various welfare services including operation of puericulture centers. In 1922, he opened a midwifery training school in Sta. Cruz, Manila which was the progenitor of the Maternity and Children’s Hospital which is now the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital. He also initiated the development of a children’s village called Welfareville in Mandaluyong, Rizal where the government’s child-caring institutions were established. The first child health surveys and studies of Filipino diet were conducted under his leadership.
-Martin I. Tinio, Jr.
