2nd Quarter of 19th Century
Narra, Carabao Bone, Kamagong and Silver
H:41” x L:94” x W:28 (104 cm x 239 cm x 71 cm)

Provenance:
Nueva Ecija
Arnedo-Macam-Dalusong Family of Apalit

Pampanga, the first and largest province created by the Spanish conquistadores, cut a swath across Luzon from the China Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It encompassed today’s provinces of Pangasinan. Zambales, Bataan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija, including Polilio Island and the entire Pacific Coast from Palanan in Isabela to Infanta in Quezon.

When the Tobacco Monopoly was established in 1782, the Factoria, the gathering and grading center of 90% of all the tobacco produced in the country, was put up in San Isidro, a barrio of Gapan, the largest town in Pampanga Alta, as Nueva Ecija was then called.

By the turn-of-the-19th century Gapan, the center of the Tobacco Monopoly, was the wealthiest town in Central Luzon. Many bahay-na-bato, built completely of stone with tiled roofs were erected, some even 3-storeys tall.

In the 1820s a Chinese artisan began making inlaid furniture in Gapan. The first to do so, he executed the designs by cutting the leaves and flowers in naturalistic shapes. His workmanship was precise with the carabao-bone inlay fitted exactly into their slots. The quality of his pieces was such that his furniture found their w y into the homes of the richest people in the towns along the Pampanga River. This particular piece belonging to the Arnedo-Macam-Dalusong Family is one of them. The Arnedo, Escaler & Gonzalezfamilies are descendants of the Sioco Family, the richest family of Apalit, having married the three heiresses of that family.

This Sheraton-Style narra sideboard with an elongated rectangular top and a wide central drawer flanked by smaller ones is unusual because of its size and the beauty of its inlay. It stands on four tapering spade-footed legs in front and two at the back. A simple tapering leg supports the center of the back frame. The front legs, outlined with line-inlay of carabao-bone and kamagong, are decorated with a tapering spray of buds emanating from a stylized ilang-ilang blossom on the top.

The skirt of the sideboard is inlaid in front with a foot-and-a-half-wide spray of large flowers and leaves sprouting from each leg. Kamagong inlay on the center of each leaf give a contrasting effect on the design. The top and bottom moldings as well as the drawer frames are inlaid with bands of stylized laurel leaves on kamagong. Unique is the serrated border of bone flanking the inlay of the frames and the upper molding.

The drawers have turned kamagong drawer pulls surmounted by an inlaid garland with a central flower flanked by a foliate branch supporting a chased silver keyhole shield. The sideboard has a pair of secret drawers, proof that it belonged to a rich family who had a lot of gold and jewels to safeguard.

This sideboard seems the only one of its size and quality that has ever surfaced to date.