PROPERTY FROM THE TONY AND CEZ GUTIERREZ COLLECTION

Early 19th Century
Silver and Baticuling Wood
Chalice: H: 9 1/2” (24 cm) / C: 5 1/2”(14 cm)
Cover: H: 11” (28 cm) / C: 7”(18 cm)
weight: 632g

Provenance:
Most probably from the Parian in Manila

In Western Christianity, chalices often have a pommel or node where the stem meets the cup to make the elevation easier and to prevent the cup from slipping. In Roman Catholicism, chalices tend to be tulip-shaped, and the cups are quite narrow. Catholic priests will often receive chalices from their families upon their ordination into the priesthood.

Often highly decorated, chalices in the colonial period were often made of precious metal and even enameled and jeweled. If funds were short, religious tradition required that the inside of the cup at least be plated with gold.

This particular piece is a silversmith’s masterpiece with bands of very fine foliate and floral designs chased with great delicacy. The base of the stem, the pommel and the waist of the cup are decorated with a string of beads, called ‘rosario de perlas’ in contemporary inventories. This detail is particularly time-consuming to make, as each bead has to be formed individually by filing it from a thick circle of silver. The outer rim of the base is engraved with a band of very fine grass-like leaves in ysod, while the base of the stem is decorated with a scalloped border of the same. Ysod, a Tagalog term meaning to push aside, is an engraving technique that requires the use of a V-shaped chisel or buril to engrave the design in a left-right-left manner. The zigzag line forming the outline of the design must be doneat one go, requiring great skill and precision.

To prevent the chalice from being dented, it was kept in a wooden estuche or case that was usually lined with velvet. In this case a wooden one of baticuling (Litsea perrottetii F. Vill.) wood was hand-turned in the shape of the object, then split and hollowed out by hand to hold the vessel tightly and securely. The exterior of the estuche still bears bands of red and yellow pigment over gesso.