Ramon N. Villegas

An independent curator whose projects include work on the permanent exhibition of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gold Collection, Tresors Philippine for the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, France, and Sheer Realities in New York, Seattle, and Manila for the Asia Society. He is the author of The Philippine Jewelry Tradition; "Life in the Colony" (Volume IV, Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People); and Hiyas: The Philippine Jewelry Heritage. He graduated from the A.B. Honors Program of De La Salle University, majoring in literature.

Book Info:

In 1983, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas published The Philippine Jewelry Tradition as Volume III of the Kayamanan Series. That book dealt with its collection of pre-Hispanic gold artifacts in the context of the whole continuum of Philippine jewelry history, and against the background of other public and private collections.

Ginto: History Wrought in Gold this time focuses solely on the Gold Collection of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, cataloguing its holdings exhaustively.

More significantly, it is a reading, as historical text, of pre-Hispanic artifacts in the precious metal, in the light of the most recent data and the latest theories. Ginto is an attempt at a historical narrative about the Philippines before 1500, drawn from the in-depth study of techniques and designs in Philippine gold artifacts, the few extant primary sources, scattered archeological data, and wide-ranging cultural studies.

The Bangko Sentral Gold Collection is part of the national heritage not only because of its material value, but more importantly because it is a legacy from a golden age.

Author Info:

Ramon Nazareth Villegas wrote The Philippine Jewelry Tradition, the third volume of the Kayamanan Series, twenty-one years ago. Now fifty years old, he belongs to the fourth generation of a Batangueño family of jewellers.

He graduated with honors and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree, major in Literature, from the De La Salle University. He was a student lecturer on literature at his college at the age of 22, and received the school's Award for Excellence in the literary field. He left the academe after a few years to concentrate on writing on art and history, as well as his family's line of business. He now manages Yamang Katutubo, a recondite gallery in Makati.

Villegas wrote Hiyas: The Philippine Jewellery Heritage, published by the Philippine Jewellers' Guild; and the art and culture half of Volume IV of Kasaysayan, History of the Filipino People, published by the Reader's Digest and A-Z. Marketing. He was Editor of Batangas: Forged in Fire for the Ayala Foundation and Tubod: The Heart of Bohol for the National Commission on Culture and the Arts. He has written two cover features for the prestigious Arts of Asia magazine of Hong Kong.

As an independent curator, Villegas worked on the permanent exhibition of the Bangko Sentral Gold Collection; "Tresors Philippine", an exhibition on Philippine pre-Hispanic gold at the Musee de l'Homme in Paris; "Sheer Realities", an exhibition on 19th century Philippine costume for the Asia Society in New York, Seattle and Manila; and "A Brief History of Philippine Currency" at the Ayala Museum, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, among others.

Villegas headed the Galian sa Arte at Tula, a group of modernist poets in Filipino which National Artist Virgilio Almario helped found; the Antique Dealers'Association of the Philippines; the Bayanihan Collectors' Club for several years; and the Philippine Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, founded in 1929. He was a Board Member of the Jewellers' Guild of the Philippines, Concerned Citizens for the National Museum, and the Museum Foundation of the Philippines.

His collection of Filipiniana has been an important resource for curators, researchers and publishers.

Contents:

Foreword -- 7

A History Wrought in Gold

A Golden History -- 11

Artisans and Design Precepts -- 39

Gold Working Techniques -- 51

Ancestral Gold -- 69

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gold Collection -- 72

Acknowledgements -- 191

References -- 192