[meteorite-list] Tektites in the Philippines

From: drtanuki <drtanuki_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Oct 2 19:43:29 2005
Message-ID: <20051002234327.64327.qmail_at_web53205.mail.yahoo.com>

Darren and List,
  I purchased his remaining tektite collection some
three years ago. His remaining collection includes
only ethnographic artifacts and are ILLEGAL to export
from the Philippines as they are considered National
Treasures by the Philippine government. Buyers
Beware! Henry (William) II is a very nice guy but
there will be no bargains as it is his relatives
selling off his collection from his father, the Late
Dr. Henry Beyer. Also beware it is typhoon season and
the location is very remote and the roads are
dangerous.
Sincerely, Dirk Ross...Tokyo

--- Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_charter.net> wrote:

> I don't know if anyone on the list is in a location
> that they could take advantage of this sale, but
> it sounds interesting:
>
>
http://money.inq7.net/features/view_features.php?yyyy=2005&mon=10&dd=03&file=1
>
> Henry Otley Beyer: Prized artifacts for sale
> Posted: 3:00 AM | Oct. 03, 2005
> Vincent Cabreza
> Inquirer News Service
>
>
> Publihsed on Page B2-4 of the October 3, 2005 issue
> of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
>
> BAGUIO CITY-Bargain hunters won't spare it a glance,
> but the curious may realize that there's
> something out of the ordinary at the Beyer
> Collections, Tribal Arts and Antiquities store here.
>
>
> The artifacts on sale in this two-week-old Baguio
> antiquities shop carry the brand name Henry Otley
> Beyer.
>
> And to buy old Ifugao wooden helmets with intricate
> carvings or odd black shiny stones labeled
> Rizalites, one will have to pass the scholastic
> scrutiny of Henry N. Beyer II, the shop's
> 62-year-old owner and grandson of the late American
> anthropologist regarded as the country's
> foremost expert in Philippine antiquities.
>
> Henry II is selling many of his grandfather's
> archaeological heirlooms, some practically
> invaluable
> because they are prehistoric relics dating back
> 10,000 years.
>
> Buyers will have to be as worthy as the artifacts,
> he said, because these items carry the late Henry
> Otley Beyer's "soul."
>
> Every item in the collection has a story, which
> Beyer meticulously documented. These artifacts have
> since become part of the country's priceless body of
> knowledge, the younger Henry II said.
>
> For example, the trays of Rizalites stored in the
> Beyer family loft are actually tektites the old
> Beyer had uncovered from various archeological
> expeditions, which he named after Jose Rizal.
>
> Tektites are believed to be meteorite fragments, and
> Beyer is reputed to own the world's largest
> collection.
>
> Henry II said the Ifugao helmets, which bear
> carvings of faces, were dug up before World War II
> and
> may be 1,000 years old. An Ifugao helmet, which was
> auctioned off in 1988 at the Christie's in
> London, sold for $13,000, he said.
>
> Henry Otley Beyer migrated to Banaue, Ifugao, home
> of the world famous rice terraces, after meeting
> some of the people who built them at the 1904 St.
> Louis Purchase Centennial Exposition.
>
> "Unable to find US funding to sustain his study of
> Ifugao ethnography and to dig for Philippine
> fossils, Beyer decided to apply as a Filipino
> teacher," Henry II said.
>
> Beyer passed the Philippine civil service
> examinations during the colonial American regime,
> married
> Banaue lass Linglayu, and settled down to build an
> interesting Philippine career.
>
> Beyer helped put up the Department of Anthropology
> of the University of the Philippines. His works
> on prehistoric Luzon and the world famous terraces
> formed the foundation for Philippine
> anthropology.
>
> Henry II said his grandfather had also engaged in
> the trade of relics because he accepted
> commissions to stock foreign museums with Philippine
> archaeological specimens.
>
> But Beyer was no tomb raider, Henry II said, because
> of his grandfather's sensitivity to the
> Igorots' cultural vulnerability.
>
> "He documented a lot about the Benguet mummies, but
> he never disclosed their location for fear they
> would be ransacked," Henry II said.
>
> He said it was his grandfather's vocation as a
> museum relic hunter that gave the family the idea
> that an antiquities market can be profitable.
>
> The Beyer antiquities store is not Henry II's first
> venture.
>
> A business management graduate, he managed an Ifugao
> artifact shop in Ermita for 10 years until 1994
> when a Manila cleanup drive in Ermita discouraged
> his American clients from returning to their
> block.
>
> Henry II said he wanted to be an aeronautical
> engineer, but he was forced to stop school to take
> care of the ailing Beyer at Diliman in 1964.
>
> Of all the Beyer grandchildren, Henry II was the
> only one Beyer understood.
>
> "[Beyer] could only understand the dialect and
> accent of the Banawe speaker. My other brothers
> [from
> different mothers] spoke Ifugao but with an eastern
> Ifugao accent, and my grandfather could not
> understand them very well, so I spent two years
> taking care of him until he died," Henry II said.
>
> He said it was the most important moment of his
> adult life.
>
> After Beyer was buried, the anthropologist's only
> son William asked Henry II to work at the
> Beyer-owned Banaue View Inn in 1966.
>
> The hotel burned down in 1968, but Henry II had
> managed to invest enough of his time in learning
> about his grandfather's transactions in antiquity
> trading to consider a business career.
>
> Henry II said it was important because Beyer's death
> also meant the loss of his celebrated
> collections.
>
> William sold Beyer's porcelain specimens for
> $100,000 to a private collector in the 1960s. The
> family sold Beyer's 40,000-book collection to the
> Australian government for A$200,000.
>
> But the whole Beyer collection was decimated when
> government confiscated many of the specimens by
> presidential proclamation during martial law, Henry
> II said.
>
> The government wanted the Beyer family to donate the
> collections for a show being produced by former
> First lady Imelda Marcos, in exchange for appointing
> William as Ifugao's first governor.
>
> The old Mt. Province had just been broken down into
> smaller Cordillera provinces.
>
> "[My father] did not accept, because he [told me]
> the position is elective and he will not stay
> there for long," Henry II said.
>
> Henry II said his last inventory of the collections
> at the National Museum, where the Beyer
> specimens were stored, revealed that the most
> valuable items had been spirited away.
>
> Selling what's left of the collections in the Beyer
> family's care may seem illogical, Henry II said.
>
> But he said Beyer Collections, Tribal Arts and
> Antiquities "is a stepping stone to selling genuine
> artifacts constructed using indigenous technology
> from Ifugao, because I want to promote the
> knowledge my grandfather set down on paper."
>
> The shop sells three generations worth of Beyer
> legacies, because heirs have started updating the
> collections with new finds, he said.
>
> A great, great granddaughter of the eminent
> anthropologist has decided to pursue an
> archaeological
> career herself, he added.
>
> Copyright 2005 Inquirer News Service. All rights
> reserved. This material may not be published,
> broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
>
>
>
> copyright ?2005 INQ7money.net all rights reserved
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Received on Sun 02 Oct 2005 07:43:27 PM PDT