Rizal's Personal Spoon & Fork Are Up For Auction—But First Here's Their Story

(SPOT.ph) A famous personality’s flatware is not exactly a strange sighting at auctions, but there’s something particularly special about the spoon and fork up for bids at the upcoming Leon Gallery Spectacular Mid-Year Auction. First of all, they were originally owned by Jose Rizal, who happens to be marking his 165th birth anniversary this month. Secondly, the pair of spoon and fork, which bears the man’s initials, has a story to tell. Apparently, according to the premier auction house, its bigger purpose was to protect the author of the then just-published Noli Me Tangere, his first novel, from those who wish him ill.

By 1887 — the year Noli Me Tangere had seen print — Rizal had transformed from a serious student of ophthalmology and an earnest scholar of Filipino civilization to, quite simply, the country’s first whistle-blower. Apolinario Mabini, writing on the history of the Philippine Revolution, credits this to his realization that writing acerbic essays in the fortnightly La Solidaridad was not nearly enough.

The Noli thus became the first Filipino exposé of public corruption. Using archetypes (the wealthy members of the ruling principalia, such as Kapitan Tiago and Doña Victorina, as well as the malevolent friar Padre Damaso) and scenes familiar to all Filipinos, he effectively created a Philippine passion play. Which made the book the most important in the Philippines at the time, inspiring Andres Bonifacio and an entire generation. It would eventually light the long fuse that would spark a revolution; and Rizal would ultimately pay for these disclosures with his life. 

When the the Noli arrived in the Philippines, it was a sensation — not just because of the effect it had on Filipino readers but also on the Catholic clergy, who were infuriated by its revelations and accusations.

Rizal would fly straight into this storm when he arrived in Manila, by way of Indo-China, in August 1887, just a few months after the book’s publication in Berlin.

Reportage of those times shows how tense those days were: In a letter dated 5 September 1887, Rizal informed his friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt, that “his book had caused a significant stir. People were asking about it everywhere, and there were no copies readily available at all.” Governor-General Emilio Terrero y Perinat, a hardened veteran of the Moro Wars, had even summoned him to request a copy of the book, saying, “You wrote a novel that caused such turmoil. It’s been reported to contain offensive content and subversive ideas. I want to read it.”

“I plan to send copies to Your Excellency and the Archbishop of Manila once I receive them from Europe," Rizal replied. "I only have one, which I lent to a friend. If permitted, I will find another.” The general insisted, “Not only do I permit it, but I demand it.”

The next day, the report continues, Rizal tried to retrieve a copy from the Jesuits, who refused to part with the book, so he wound up presenting a stained copy to the governor-general. Terrero welcomed the new novelist cordially and asked if he was returning home. Rizal replied with the whole catalog of sins imputed to him, and that he stood accused of “being a German spy, a Bismarck agent, a Protestant, a freemason, a sorcerer, and morally compromised”, which made him prefer staying at home in Calamba.

Terrero was keenly aware that Rizal’s life was at risk from formidable enemies like the friars, so the governor took the unusual measure of assigning him a personal bodyguard.

The banning of his book by the Spanish colonial government and the Catholic church, however, made the Noli an unexpected blockbuster and Rizal, the first Filipino best-selling author. Outlawed by the Spanish colonial regime, possession of the book (much more reading it) would lead to condemnation and arrest.

Once safely back in Europe, Rizal would more explicitly detail the dangers he faced after the publication of his book in one letter to his friend Pastor Karl Ullmer, dated June 8, 1888. It reports on the lightning visit he made to the Philippines to operate on his mother’s eyes after months of training in the European capitals.

It talks not just about the constant threats of his arrest and excommunication while in Manila, but also his family’s fears of his assassination; so afraid were they that he would be poisoned that his mother refused to let him eat anywhere else but at home.

Rizal’s personal flatware, the term used for the fork and spoon traditionally made from a single flat piece of metal, was an indispensable survival tool. It features one extravagance, his engraved initials “J.R.”, making it an indelible remembrance of a tumultuous and historic year.

Silver forks and spoons were valuable, not least because they could detect the presence of certain poisons, such as arsenic, which would cause them to change color.

However, Rizal’s dinner set was not made of true silver, but a kind of metal known as “German silver,” whose silver-white color made it appear like the real thing. The spoon has the hallmark “F.M. & Cie. Pacfong.” “German silver” or “Pacfong” was, in truth, made of a kind of nickel-brass alloy (roughly 40-70% copper, 15-30% nickel, 10-40% zinc) that came from China and was imported to Europe in the 18th to 19th centuries as a cheaper (and more durable) alternative to sterling silver.

F.M. & Cie. (F.M. & Co.) refers to a maker's mark often associated with the European, particularly French or Belgian, with the “F” standing for "Frères..." or "Fabrique...". It is a manufacturer often found on silver-plated cutlery and decorative tableware, specifically of Pacfong (Paktong). The fork, evenly matched, bears a different marking of “F.K. Superior”.

The personal dinner set was an important precautionary measure in that year of living dangerously: having his own utensils to safeguard his health. It was passed on to his sister Narcisa, or "Sisa," who assisted the funding of her brother's studies abroad. After Sisa, it was under the care of her son, Dr. Leoncio Lopez-Rizal. The flatware is Lot 91 at the upcoming Leon Gallery auction, with a starting bid of P1,000,000.

Nevertheless, Rizal’s friends warned him that he was lucky to have gotten out of the Philippines alive. He would not be deterred. Quoting the famous German poem “The Diver” by Schiller, of a young knight ordered by a mad king to return to the depths of the ocean — “where monsters and dragons buried their claws into him” — Rizal said he was nevertheless single-minded in his conviction to fight on against corruption. He even added that he had begun a second book, El Filibusterismo, which would be even more incendiary than his first.

Leon Gallery's Spectacular Mid-year Auction is happening on June 13 at Leon Gallery, Eurovilla 1, Rufino cor. Legazpi Streets, Legazpi Village, Makati City. For the full catalogue, click here.