Tampinco bed of Maximo Viola, the man who saved Rizal’s ‘Noli,’ to be auctioned off
Also to be bidded out: first-edition ‘Noli Me Tangere’
Perhaps the most significant piece of furniture in León Gallery’s Spectacular Midyear Auction 2017 is the Maximo Viola Bed, said to be crafted by the legendary sculptor and designer Isabelo Tampinco.
Made of narra, lanite and rattan, the antique bed was owned by the nationalist Maximo Viola, friend of José Rizal and known to be “the man who saved the ‘Noli Me Tangere’” by lending Rizal the money needed to have the book published.
According to social historian Martin Imperial Tinio, this bed is a collaborative work of Tampinco and Emilio Alvero.
“The bed stands on feet carved in the shape of an inverted and truncated trunk of an areca or bonga palm emanating from a quadrant at each corner carved with a spray of anahaw leaves,” Tinio writes in the catalogue.
León owner Jaime Ponce de León, in his catalogue notes, apparently is referring to Tampinco and Alvero as “the masters of the turn of the century” featured in the June 10 exhibit.
De León calls the bed “exquisite, ornately carved Tampinco bed for none other than Maximo Sison Viola, Rizal’s bosom buddy.”
Bidding for the bed will start at P400,000.
Another noteworthy item in the auction is the first edition of Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere,” in very good condition.
The book was in a South American collection until it found its way to a Spanish collector who subsequently consigned the book to León Gallery.
The Hispano-Philippine Crucifix from the 17th century, according to De León, was a sterling example of the Filipino craft during the early part of the Spanish colonial period. It has a starting price of P1.8 million.
“Pieces such as these are found only in museums and private collections in the Americas and Europe as they were meant for export via the galleon trade which sailed between Manila and Acapulco,” De León said. “Until the emergence of the ‘ilustrado’ in the 19th century, all the most beautiful works by Filipinos were sent for export as the Philippines did not, until then, have a consumer class.”