ÁLBUM DE FILIPINAS S. XIX

(CON IMPORTANTE COLECCIÓN DE ACUARELAS DEL TERREMOTO DE MANILA DE 1863)

ALBUM OF THE PHILIPPINES 19TH CENTURY (WITH AN IMPORTANT COLLECTION OF WATERCOLORS FROM THE MANILA EARTHQUAKE OF 1863)

Covers made of silver and mother of pearl with a central casket decorated with a bouquet of gouache flowers. Spine in yellow velvet. Pages on yellowish and tan paper with gold leaf cuts and endpapers lined with red silk moirE. The delicate craftsmanship and the nobility of the materials used in the making of this album hide within it content of greater value at a historical and documentary level. In its thirty-eight pages, a collection of sixteen gouache paintings are interspersed, of which eleven are responsible for showing the damage suffered by some buildings in the devastating Manila earthquake of 1863. Apart from this precious material, the album is completed with four traditional scenes of daily life in the archipelago and a photograph that shows a couple of ladies whose clothes also have slight touches with gouache and gold. The seventeen illuminated pages represent: Filipino peasant woman carrying a water jug; Filipino peasant family; Photograph with two women of the aristocracy; Ruin of the General Directorate of Collections; Binondo church tower ruin; Ruin of the facade and tower of the Binondo church; Ruin of the FortIn Barracks; Manila Customs Ruin; Ruin of the church of Santo Domingo; Ruin of the church of Saint Elizabeth; Manila Cathedral Church Ruin; Ruin of the AlcaicerIa of San Fernando; Ruin of an unidentified building (perhaps Government tobacco warehouse); Couple in love; Ruin of the Cavalry Barracks; Girl lying on a couch; House fire caused by the earthquake. As we said previously, the eleven gouache paintings showing the damage caused to different buildings by the earthquake are what gives added value to the album. The Manila earthquake took place on June 3, 1863 and the first news reached the metropolis by telegraph, two months later; a fact that generated great confusion due to the lack of information and ignorance of the seriousness of the catastrophe. Until now, the main graphic document of this dramatic event has been the work carried out by the photographer and miniaturist Pedro MartInez de Hebert (Valladolid, 1819 - 1891), which consists of twenty-three photographs on albumen paper preserved in the Royal Library (National Heritage ) and images based on this material that were published in The Illustrated London News magazine. There are numerous parallels between the frames of these photographs and the drawings contained in this album, both being documents of great artistic and historical value as they are one of the few urban images that are preserved of the Philippines made in the sixties of the 19th century. . Measurements: Album: 17.5 x 24 cm. Sheet measurements: 17 x 23 cm.