Sinauna Crafts - Definition of Terms

Almario or Armazon (pillow rack): tall wooden case; had an exaggerated top rack that made it look T-shaped; where pillows were either rolled up in a mat or aired in its rack. Today’s collector gives the almario a unique étagère for celadons and statuettes (with shelves added).

Almazon

Armazon: a framework to hang up ones’ armor

Armario: a cabinet to keep arms in

Aparador: meant any of two cabinets. One was the aparador ropero, or clothes cabinet (later shortened to aparador) and the second cabinet, aparador platero, or showcase.

Aparador de libros: shelf case or bookcase

Banggera
: a slatted wooden rack appended to a window; only afterwards were they returned to their cabinets, or if they were kitchen tools, to hooks on walls and rafters.

Bastonero: a storage unit for parasols, top hats and canes were deposited in this rack, which waited at foyers and stair landings.

Baul (Chest): oldest household item made of big, heavy and sturdy wooden boxes. More common to Manila are Vigan and Mindanao household chests.

Botiquin: wooden medicine cabinet with tiny shelves (sometimes has glass panels)

Butaca: curving seat and a wide reclined back of woven cane.

Cajas de hierro (Iron Chest)

Comoda: two styles of Comoda are the chest of drawers and the low cabinet with two doors – store clothes and serve as altar tables

Consolas: consoles

Costureros: sewing table, table top rested, had spool racks and compartments for notions under a protective lid top.

Dulang: a low plain table (the table at which the datu presided during the time of the Spanish conquest.

Escritorio: rolltop desk – several drawers on both sides framed the kneehole while a slant-front or fall-front lid revealed practical pigeonholes inside. It merely had a drawer on each end of the table and long graceful cabriole legs; its hinged slanting lid could be lifted.

Estante: open showcase for knick-knacks. Bibelots and books were often combined in one estante in the library, living room or bedroom.

Gallineras: are settees with flat arms, a long back of wooden slats a solid plank for the seat. The gallinera stood in the manor’s ground floor.

Globo: hanging glass lamp evolved from classic church lanterns. The outer shell prevented burning oil from spilling to the floor and causing fire during earthquakes.

Kanape: a chair whose armrests undulated like bolster pillows about two to five people could snuggle together in the antesala’s kanape.

Kapiya: another settee which began as a pew for the faithful to sit on during mass but wound up in laymen’s kitchens, could accommodate several tenants and domestics at a time.

Mariposa sofa: had a tall continuous cane back whose graceful silhouette enveloped the sitters like two curving butterfly wings

Mesa: the Spaniard’s waist-high table

Mesa-altar: special table used by Filipinos to relate to their saints like good friends and delight in displaying them. It was commonplace in living rooms.

Mesitas: center table

Silla Frailuna: a butaca variant, or silyang prayle, is wider than the other sillons.

Silyang Pamintana: or sillon, high window armchairs or the chair-for-looking-out-the-window

Silla Peresoza: or lazy chair had over-extended flat arms; one sank into the seat and rested each leg on the nearby arm. These lazy chairs are still used in today’s Isabela and Cagayan Valley haciendas

Tampipi: baskets and light woven boxes

Tindalo chair: a chair with two drawers under its seat, could be pulled out to offer betel nut, cigars and cigarettes. Similarly other seats lifted up to reveal a place for keeping one’s hat while visiting.

Tumba-tumba

or mercedoras (rocking chairs), used as welcome furniture on covered porches and azoteas

Viandero: hygienic food larder, screened to keep out flies, where bagoong and breakfast remains stayed on the larder’s top shelf, rice and newly cooked viands below.

Vitrina: a variation of estante; small, light piece of furniture displays curios dust free – an open shelf and enclosed in clear glass.

Types of hardwood

AMUGUIS – (Cyrtocarpa quinquestila): Qualities:Its beef-red color sometimes has lead-gray stains; its texture usually compact; its pores many and of a regular size. It would be better appreciated were it not so attractive to termites; when newly worked, it emits a disagreeable odor. It is extremely hard and heavy and resist the axe. A large tree sometimes will take two weeks to fell.; Uses:Sawn into planks for walls and roofing.

BALAO – (Dipterocarpus vernicifluus): Qualities:May be yellowish-white or grayish-green with ash gray stains; may also be a bright red or a yellowish-red; has a solid texture; is fibrous; has indistinct pores, sometimes breaks in strings, at other times in chips. The reddish-yellow type is sometimes taken for ipil , however it is an inferior substitute.

BANABA – (Lagerstraemia speciosa): Qualities:Varies from a pinkish-white to a shadowy red; has longitudinal and compressed fibers; has long and short pores that seem like small cracks; has short flakes and yields a shaving that is rough, porous and barely spiraled.; Uses:Used for different house parts; excellent especially for those parts that must resist humidity.

BATICULING – (Millingtonia quadripinnata): Qualities:May be yellowish white or loamy yellow with a rather loose texture and plenty of pores; is easy to work with and quickly acquires a good polish.; Uses:For carved ornamentation. Sawn into planks for walls and roofing.

DUNGON – (Sterculia cimbinformis): Qualities: Red-purple; has a solid texture, compressed fibers and barely noticeable pores; has an odor like cured leather; has closely-packed, rough but barely spiraled shavings.; Uses: House posts, jamb-posts, dormers, etc., for house parts that should be resistant and, at the same time, do not require too much working for the wood is hard.

GUIJO – (Dipterocarpus guiso): Qualities:Bright to grayish-red; has wavy fiber that is also strong and stringy; has many and well-marked pores.; Uses:House posts.

IPIL – (Eperua decandra): Qualities: May be a dark red or an ochre yellow, both of which deepen in hue; has transversal and compressed fibers, a bold texture and long pores that look like small, curved clefts. It breaks in short flakes and yields a harsh, spiraled shaving. The dark red variety is extremely hard and resists nailing.; Uses: House posts, beams, windows and door frames, trusses, floor planks, etc.

MALATUMBAGA – (Crudia spicata): Qualities:Its color ranges from beef to brick red; has a compact texture and is easy to work with. However it is not often used for construction.; Uses:Sawn into planks for walls and roofing.

MOLAVE – (Viltex geniculata): Qualities: May be yellow, yellowish-green or ash gray; may have a fine, compact texture, packed fibers and small pores that are almost indistinct. Its acidic smell can be imperceptible. When soaked in water, molave stains it yellow. It usually has a light, bitter taste; breaks in short flakes and yields a very fine, compact, elastic and spiraled shaving.; Uses: House posts, beams, window and door frames, trousers, floor plants, etc.

NARRA – (Pterocarpus santalinus): Qualities: Of a red deep as to be bloodlike; has a solid, glassy texture with closely-packed fibers; has visible pores; easily acquires a beautiful sheen; exudes a fine scent.; Uses:Doors and door planks

TANGILE – (Dipterocarpus polyspermus): Qualities:Toasted red and of a fine texture with large pores; breaks at the trunk.

WHITE NARRA – (Pterocarpus pallidus): Qualities: Ochre colored, with dark brown veins which eventually deepens into a yellow brown; has a fine texture with indistinct pores; and bleeds a red resin which hardens.

YAKAL – (Dipterocarpus plagatus): Qualities:Loamy yellow in color; has solid, fine texture; breaks in large flakes and yields a fine, compact, spiraled shaving. This is one of the heaviest and most resistant Philippine woods.; Uses:Excellent for roof rafters and other house parts.