{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O506709"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O506709/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JK2365/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JK2365/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JK2365","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O506709/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O506709","accessionNumber":"528","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This watercolour, made by an unknown artist from the Philippines, is among the earliest objects to enter the V&A’s collection. One of eight by the same hand, the works fall under a genre called<i> tipos del país</i> (‘types of the country’) popularised in nineteenth-century Manila. These small paintings portrayed local people in ‘typical’ dress, and were fashionable souvenirs for foreign traders in the latter part of the Spanish colonial period (1565–1898). Often, they were inscribed with titles that flattened their subjects into reductive socio-ethnic categories.\n\r\nThe Tagalog language captions here are more unusual, however, offering a distinctive counterpoint. In lines of rhyming verse, they add a playful tone and more nuanced, often humorous, layer of personality. Some words are transliterated using Spanish spellings, which, along with the mixing of native and European dress, and the British paper watermark, exposes legacies of Empire in the form and fabric of these objects. The works evidence Manila as a cosmopolitan Southeast Asian capital – and a complex fusion of East and West – in the 1800s, as it is today.","physicalDescription":"Watercolour on a sheet of white paper; in the centre of the page, a young man is depicted seated, reading. He is pale-skinned with neatly combed black hair and is sitting on a brown wooden chair; it has wide armrests, floral finials, and a rattan-woven back. The man wears a white, long-sleeved<i> barong </i>with a standing collar and half-placket with three buttons, a pair of yellow and white vertical-striped trousers, and a pair of yellow shoes. He holds an open book, which has dark burgundy binding. Underneath the drawing, a caption is lettered in black over five lines of verse, written in a Filipino language. At the top of the sheet are markings which read, ‘B./ 1’ and ‘2’. The paper has the watermark, 'J Whatman Turkey Mill'.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Register notes: 'by a native artist (?)'"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting (technique)","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Illustration","id":"THES48938"},{"text":"Costumes","id":"THES269529"},{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"},{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Figures","id":"THES274372"},{"text":"Menswear","id":"THES49043"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2016JK2365"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC (VA)","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"O","shelf":"7","box":"D"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawings","id":"AAT33973"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Manila","id":"x35066"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Philippines","id":"x30022"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"c. 1840s","earliest":"1835-01-01","latest":"1853-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Register entry for 528 to 535 notes 'Collection Marlborough House', so the works predate 1852. There is a 'J Whatman Turkey Mill' watermark on the paper with the date 1835."}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"14558","id":"O669152"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"24","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"13/05/2025","earliest":"2025-05-13","latest":"2025-05-13"},"part":"Sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"16.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"13/05/2025","earliest":"2025-05-13","latest":"2025-05-13"},"part":"Sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Ycip yáta nang aquing ynà /\r\nitong pag a áral coy totoo na /\r\nhindi nia na aalaman pa /\r\nna aco y may trato na /\r\nsa isang dalágang maganda.'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"I assume, my mother thought /\r\nthat my study is now for real /\r\nshe doesn’t know yet /\r\nthat I already have a relationship /\r\nwith a beautiful maiden.","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"The caption seems to be mainly in Tagalog, with some ‘Hispanic’ words or spellings from a transliteration using the Spanish alphabet. This is a loose translation and not verbatim."},{"content":"'J Whatman / Turkey Mill / 1835' [watermark]","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"This exact dated watermark is in not found in E. Heawood, <i>Watermarks mainly of the 17th and 18th Century</i>, 1950."},{"content":"'B. / 1. 2.'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Markings at the top of the sheet; the ‘B.' and ‘2.’ in black ink, and the '1' added in pencil underneath the 'B.'"}],"objectHistory":"One of eight watercolours (528 to 535) collectively titled 'Costume of Manilla' [sic] in the accessions register, and described as 'a series of eight coloured drawings by a native artist (?)'. The register entry also includes a note indicating they were formerly in the Marlborough House collection. The works are on paper bearing a 'J Whatman Turkey Mill' watermark, including a date of 1835 visible on some of the sheets.\r\n\r\nThese watercolours correspond to another series which are also in the collection (14558 to 14565), titled 'Manilla' [sic] in the accessions register, and described as a 'series of eight figures illustrating trades etc'.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Watercolour depicting a man reading, watercolour and ink on paper, Manila, Philippines, c. 1840s","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Juan, C. ‘Everyday Satire: A Newly Found Tipos del País from 19th-Century Manila’ [online], in <i>Mapping Philippine Material Culture</i>, Philippine Studies at SOAS, University of London, 2025.","id":"AUTH411471"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["528"],"accessionNumberNum":"528","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-15","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}