Above, a rare L.R. Aguinaldo envelope from the Japanese
Occupation era
Back in the Philippines, he worked for the Bureau of
Education. He taught the use of modern weaving techniques to members of the
aboriginal hill tribes of the northern Philippines in the city of Baguio. Not
long after, however, he resigned and started his career as an entrepreneur. He
first tried unsuccessfully to set up a textile factory. He then imported
textile machinery with a business partner. This venture was also unsuccessful
due to a lack of capital. He then founded the company, Aguinaldo, Marcelo &
Co. Later in 1913, they incorporated as The Philippine Net and Braid
Manufacturing Co. with Aguinaldo as general manager of the company.
In 1921 he and his business partner parted ways and he
started his own venture The House of Aguinaldo. He and his wife opened a shop
on Juan Luna Street, where they sold a wide variety of items. From 1923
Aguinaldo also sold Aladdin lamps imported by him. Over the years, the range
had been greatly expanded and several stores opened in various parts of the
archipelago. In 1930 he added popular curling irons to the range. Later on, he
also imported and sold shoes, jewelry, and household items, and his company
grew into the largest import and export company in the Philippines. Along with
Vicente Madrigal, Toribio Teodoro, and Gonzalo Puyat formed Aguinaldo into the
“Big Four” of the Philippine business world during that period. In 1931,
Aguinaldo founded the Aguinaldo Institute of Hair Science.
Above, the L.R. Aguinaldo & Company, an upscale
department store that used to stand on Juan Luna Street in Manila. Founded by
Leopoldo R. Aguinaldo in 1921, his grandson Leopoldo “Lee” Aguinaldo, would
later become a talented but troubled visual artist.
In addition to his own company activities, Aguinaldo also
held top positions in other Philippine companies and institutions during his
career. For example, he served as president of the Luzon Surety Co., director
of the Manila Railroad Company, director of the Manila Hotel, director of the
Philippine Carnival Association, president of Club Filipino, and president of
the Philippine Chamber of Commerce.
Aguinaldo died in 1958 at the age of 72 in the Japanese
capital Tokyo from the consequences of a heart attack. He was married from 1911
until his death to Andrea del Rosario, a sister of Judge Simplicio del Rosario,
together with her he had three sons: Daniel, Heriberto, and Francisco.
Before the SM Super Mall era, the Aguinaldo Department Store
was the biggest shopping store in Manila in the 1930s.
The Aguinaldo Department Store was located on Juan Luna
Street. The building it occupied exists to this day as the Marvel Corporation
Building with its distinct Katipunero and Liberty statues. Owned by Leopoldo R.
Aguinaldo & Co. Inc., the store was one of the posher department stores in
Manila. The company started on July 4, 1921, and by 1925, it opened a New York
buying office. In 1931, the company inaugurated the Aguinaldo Institute of Hair
Science, which included make-up and beauty culture curricula. The same year it
inaugurated a six-story department store on Juan Luna Street.
The Aguinaldo Department Store sold footwear supplies,
women’s accessories, dress trimmings, men’s furnishings, household furnishings,
Coleman lamps, toys, postage stamps for collectors, novelties, giftware, and
hair-waving machines. In 1938, it added branches in Dagupan, Baguio, and
Ermita.
The L.R. Aguinaldo Emporium was once one of the biggest
shopping stores in pre-war Manila. In the 1930s, it became the talk of the town
not just for its products but also for its unique multi-story building. The
building had an Art Deco façade featuring two contrasting statues: Andres
Bonifacio on the right and the Statue of Liberty on the left.
The store would later become known as Aguinaldo’s Department
Store. After the war, Leopoldo’s son Francisco took over the business and the
store was moved to Echague.
Above, an envelope showing multiple Japanese-era occupation
stamps of the Philippines.
As an entrepreneur, L.R. Aguinaldo saw opportunities all
around him. As an avid collector of Philippine postage stamps, especially
post-marked first-day of issue covers, he would have dozens stamped and
post-marked with the special first day of issue marking. He would have the often-colorful
envelopes sent to his address. He would then put these very historical items up
for sale or would send them to postage stamp and first-day cover collectors
around the world. Many of these envelopes have several significant postage
stamps on each and have become very collectible over the years.
Above, a rare hand-stamped “Victory” postage stamp from the
L.R. Aguinaldo collection.
As part of Mr. Aguinaldo’s collection were the extremely
rare hand-stamped Victory postage stamps. These stamps were produced just
before General MacArthur’s famous return to the Philippines in 1944. These are
stamps that were of previous issues before the war and were hand-stamped using
a crude rubber stamp that created all sorts of rare errors and very limited
supplies, making them very valuable and, unfortunately, easily forged. If from
the L.R. Aguinaldo collection, these hand-stamped Victory stamps have his
unique “circle star” marking on the back.
Above is the stamp that Aguinaldo used to personally identify those rare stamps in his possession. Aguinaldo’s succumbed to the competition and closed in the 1960s. The original building on Juan Luna Street still stands, along with both the Bonifacio and the Liberty statues.
Daniel R. Aguinaldo
Daniel R. Aguinaldo was born July 21, 1912, in Manila and
was the son of Leopoldo R. Aguinaldo. He was the founder of the Aguinaldo
Development Corporation (Adecor), a company previously based in Maco, Davao del
Norte. DRANHS was named such because it occupies a lot donated by the family
which owns vast tracts in what is now the Matina Crossing and Matina Aplaya
area under Adecor’s Mindanao Realty Corporation.
But what only the old-timers know, Daniel R. Aguinaldo was
also the spirit behind what is now the Pearl Farm Beach Resort on the Island
Garden City of Samal. The resort as it is, is now located in Barangay Adecor.
Before Pearl Farm became a resort, it was a real pearl farm named Aguinaldo
Pearl Farm. It was producing pearls using Pictada maxima oysters.
Above, the high school in Davao was named after Daniel R.
Aguinaldo.
Like all major logging companies in the region, the
denudation of Maco was attributed to Adecor. But it is also credited for the
town’s infrastructure development. Adecor was one of the foremost logging firms
in the Philippines then according to the Philippine Economic and Industrial
Journal published in 1965. Based on the accounts of Leopoldo “Lee” Aguinaldo,
an artist and one of the three children of Daniel R. Aguinaldo, it was said
that his father’s Daniel R. Aguinaldo Corporation (Dracor) was built to extend
services to Adecor. The younger Lee confirmed through his accounts that he had
served company operations and logging operations in the area.
Daniel died on January 29, 1985, in Los Angeles,
California, USA
Leopoldo “Lee” Aguinaldo (September 5, 1933 – January 2007)
Lee Aguinaldo, considered a pioneer of Philippine modernism,
was born in New York City. He came from a prominent family descended from
Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy (1869-1964) a military leader and politician who is
popularly considered to be the first president of the Philippines. From an
early age, Lee showed an interest in art and resisted the expectation that he
would eventually take over the management of the Aguinaldo family business
interests.
His father Daniel (the son of Leopoldo R. Aguinaldo) had
supported Ramon Magsaysay’s presidential bid. As a reward, he received logging
concessions in Mindanao. He proceeded to make a fortune on other endeavors
including a pearl farm in Samal Island, Davao del Norte; a mining company in
Pantukan, Davao del Oro; a marble factory in Palawan; real estate developments;
and the family’s eponymous department store, Aguinaldo’s.
Above, Lee’s modernistic expression titled Linear Explosion No. 2,
1959
Like most privileged children of his time, Lee was sent to
boarding school—in his case, the Culver Military Academy in Indiana—to learn
discipline. During his free time, he devoured art literature and taught himself
drawing by copying comics and art manuals.
In the conservative art world, Lee is considered the “bad
boy” of Philippine art who turned his back on a life of privilege for
creativity, hedonism, and redemption and is remembered as much as a pioneer in
Philippine modernism rather than some sort of a rascal in high society.
Anecdotes of his idiosyncrasies are just as remarkable as his works. During
Martial Law, the late Arturo Luz—before he became National Artist for Visual
Arts—mounted an exhibit for Lee and invited First Lady Imelda Marcos to cut the
ribbon. Not a fan of the Marcos regime and Imelda and Ferdinand in particular,
Lee was a no-show. Offended by the snub, Mrs. Marcos bought the entire
collection and distributed the paintings to her favored Blue Ladies.
After attending a military academy in the United States, he
did briefly work for his father’s company. In the late ‘40s, Abstract
Expressionism, essentially post-war innovations in art, was emerging.
Influenced by pioneer Jackson Pollock, Lee rejected traditional art tools and
took to dripping and splattering paint to create interesting textures. “Young
artists go through this imitative space,” says art critic Cid Reyes. “They
create in the style of predecessors that they admire, before eventually developing
their own.”
Fascinated by developments in American modern art Lee was
influenced not only by the works of Jackson Pollock but Mark Rothko, Ad
Reinhart, and later, Robert Rauschenberg. His art developed in an eclectic
sequence, defying any linear progression.
In the Philippines, Aguinaldo was friendly with Arturo Luz,
Roberto Chabet, Eric Torres, and Fernando Zobel who acted as a mentor. Lee’s
evolution led to his best-known series the Pollock-inspired “Flick Series”, for
which he used the palette knife to strike and graze paint onto the canvas, and
through which he achieved more recognition. Among his other series are his
pop-influenced Galumph series, and a minimalist, hard-edge series referred to
as “Linear.”
Entrepreneur Vince Revilla recalls that he bought ten
paintings from Lee’s uncle, Francisco, some 40 years ago. Decades later, he
wanted to let go of a few, among them Lee’s self-portrait titled Grotesque,
which Revilla said had scared his wife. A prospective buyer wanted it
authenticated. When the art brokers brought it to Lee, he demanded a commission
from the sale on top of the PhP10,000 authentication.
The brokers argued that the painting was no longer Lee’s
property. Miffed, the artist declared the piece fake, although it had his
signature on the back.
Linear No. 98 (1969)
Despite personal inconsistencies and growing financial
problems, Aguinaldo remained a passionate and dedicated artist into his later
years. He is the subject of a biography “The Life and Art of Lee Aguinaldo”
published by the Vibal Foundation.
Although this project started out as a tribute to L.R.
Aguinaldo, and his and my interest in postage stamp collecting, it progressed
into subsequent generations, equality interesting in their own right. This has
led to a heretofore unknown relative, Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of
the Philippines.
Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy (March 22, 1869 – February 6, 1964)
was the uncle of Leopoldo R. Aguinaldo. He was a Filipino revolutionary,
statesman, and military leader who is the youngest president of the Philippines
(1899–1901) and became the first president of the Philippines and of an Asian
constitutional republic. He led the Philippine forces first against Spain in
the Philippine Revolution (1896–1898), then in the Spanish–American War (1898),
and finally against the United States during the Philippine–American War
(1899–1901).
Above, Emilio and Hilaria del Rosario Aguinaldo. Source:
Wikimedia Commons.
Aguinaldo remains a controversial figure in Filipino
history. Though he has been recommended as a national hero of the Philippines,
many have criticized him for the deaths of the revolutionary leader Andrés
Bonifacio and general Antonio Luna, as well as his collaboration with the
Japanese Empire during their occupation of the Philippines in World War II.
If you enjoy history as much as I do, and if you love the
Philippines and its rich history, there is so much more to discover, and it
will certainly add another drop in the bucket!
All photographs are the copyright of their respective owner
and Jim Jackson Photography. Please contact me with any questions, or
comments, or for authorization to use photos or for signed high-resolution
prints.
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