 | Bundok Antiques |
|
Home |
|
Bilaan blouse with mother-of-pearls sequins browse these categories for related items... Directory: Vintage Arts:Regional Art:Asian:Southeast Asian:Textiles:Pre 1960: item # 790180 Please refer to our stock # BIL004 when inquiring.
Bundok Antiques Forest Hills, New York City Guest Book $325 |
|
|
| Circa 1950s, maybe earlier, this is a Bilaan, possibly Bagobo blouse (locally called “albong” or "umpak"), from south central Mindanao, Philippines. The blouse is made of blue commercial cotton cloth, which is profusely decorated with mother-of-pearl platelets. The shoulders, cuffs and especially the bodice's lower portion are densely decorated with mother-of-pearl sequins in lattice pattern and highlighted with the bamboo shoot motif, a symbol of fertility. The front neckline is highlighted also with the bamboo shoot motif while the back neckline is decorated with mother-of-pearl sequins in triangular pattern called “pakpak” (wing of an eagle). The rest of the blouse is embellished with roseate and bamboo shoot patterns. In excellent condition, the blouse measures 18 inches on the bodice, 15 inches from shoulder to hem and 15 inches from the shoulder to the tip of the cuff. If one considers that mother-of-pearl platelets making was done by hand on tough shells, one can imagine the amount of labor expended to decorate just one blouse. The technology for producing such mother-of-pearl platelets has already been lost, and the supply of such old shell platelets has been exhausted. A researcher wrote that garments decorated with mother-of-pearl platelets were so valuable that slaves were traded for them in the olden days. (Refer to the exhibition catalog, "Land of the Morning" by David Baradas, Plate 32 p. 77, for a picture of a similar Bilaan blouse.) | ||
|
||||||
| Home | Join | Shops | Map | Terms | Help | |