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[HAWAII] PHOTOGRAPHS.
Set of three vintage photographs of the Queen of Hawaii, and Hawaiian dancers.
Hawaii, n.d., but circa, 1880.
Three vintage silver gelatine photographs (180 x 260 mm., 145 x 210 mm., 205 x 147 mm.), each mounted on card 320 x 244 mm.; all in fine condition.
A rare set of three nineteenth-century Hawaiian photographs, including a formal studio shot of Princess Ke'elik?lani, flanked by two royal attendants. She was half-sister to Kamehameha IV and V, but was not considered fit to rule - 'aloof, suspicious, and devoted completely to Hawaiian ways, she was misunderstood and feared by many who did not know her well' (Rose, Hawai'i: The Royal Isles, 242). She was the Governess of Hawaii for many years, amassing an enormous personal wealth that made her the richest woman in the islands. This image is posed very similarly (including the gown Ke'elik?lani wears, as well as props including two kahili and even the curtain at far right) to the famous image of the Princess by Menzies Dickson, and it seems likely that this photograph dates from the same session.
The remaining two photographs are also studio shots, of two different groups of Hawaiian dancers. The first, perhaps from the same studio as the portrait of Ke'elik?lani, may actually be a family group, with three young women standing in the foreground and an older couple seated behind double gourd drums. The second is more conventionally a dance troupe, with five women in traditional dress and a man in serge pants and shirt posing with a drum.
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