Lot 15
  • 15

A FINE AND RARE HAWAIIAN FEATHER NECKLACE

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Description

lei pauku, composed of eight broad alternating bands, pauku, of red i’iwi feathers (Vestiaria coccinea) and ruffled yellow o’o feathers (Moho) woven to a core strand of olona fibers (Touchardia latifolia) terminating in a binding.

Catalogue Note


PROVENANCE

Possibly Blair Castle Collection, Perthshire, Scotland, acquired by Captain George Murray (1741-1797)
Invercauld House, at the time of James Farquharson, 10th Laird of Invercauld (1722-1805)
Braemar Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (historic seat of the Farquharsons of Invercauld)


CATALOGUE NOTE

The specific date when this lei entered the collection of the Farquharson family is unknown. The collection also includes Northeastern North American works of art (see Sotheby's New York, American Indian Art including Property from the Captain Farquharson's Invercauld Trusts removed from Braemar Castle, May 13, 2005) whose provenance is documented to the eighteenth century, and it is likely the lei was obtained at the same time.

Traditionally, Hawaiian featherwork was reserved for the highest ranks of Hawaiian aristocracy, ali’i. The feather leis were among the most cherished adornments of the women of this high-ranking class. Composed of feathers of a single color, lei hulu, or in twisting, lei pani’o, or banded, lei pauku, patterns they were worn around the neck and, in earlier times, worn as hair ornamentation as well. See a print from a sketch by Webber showing this style of adornment (Buck 1957: 534).

For a closely related lei pauku in the collection of the British Museum (HAW 114), and reportedly collected on one of Cook’s voyages, see Kaeppler (1978: 75, figure 97) composed of ten bands of alternating red i’iwi feathers and yellow o’o feathers in which the i’iwi feathers are more tightly placed in a cylindrical manner compared to the o’o feathers that are compiled in a fuller, more ruffled manner.