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Early Lithograph Portrait of Sandwich Island Royal
Rare full length image of Lydia Nāmāhāna Kekuaipiʻia (c. 1787 – 1829), or Lydia Nāmāhāna Piʻiaone, one of the widows of Kamehameha I of Hawaii. She was the daughter of Keʻeaumoku Pāpaʻiahiahi, and her sisters Kaʻahumanu and Kalākua Kaheiheimālie had also been Kamehameha's wives. Kamehameha and Ka'ahumanu arranged for Piia to marry Gideon Peleioholani Laanui, a man ten years her junior. They were married by Hiram Bingham I in a Christian ceremony, and their preferred dwelling place was Waialua, Oahu. They visited Honolulu only when necessary.
The present delightful image appears to be based on how Piʻia appeared to Otto von Kotzebue during one of his visits to Hawaii. He was particularly taken by Lydia Nāmāhāna. In fact his published account includes a description which seems to describe Nāmāhāna as shown here:
For a lady of the Sandwich Islands, Nomahanna was this day very elegantly attired. A peach-coloured dress of good silk trimmed at the bottom with black lace, covered her Majesty's immense figure...with a large bow in the front, divided exactly into two halves. She had a collar round her neck of native manufacture, made of beautiful red and yellow feathers; and on her head a very fine Leghorn hat, ornamented with artificial flowers from Canton, and trimmed round the edge with a pendant flounce of black lace...
This early lithograph portrait of Lydia Nāmāhāna Piʻiaone, which styles her as Königin der Sandwichsinseln or Queen of the Sandwich Islands, was originally issued in a now very rare work by Carl E. Rainold: Erinnerungen an merkwürdige Gegenstände und Begebenheiten, verbunden mit erheiternden Erzählungen. The title of which translates to: Memories of strange objects and events combined with amusing stories.
The lithograph (steindrucker) was made by Carl Wilhelm Medau (1791-1866), a prolific German lithographer and publisher.
![[Original photograph:] Native American group image, possibly in Indian Territory, with White Settlers](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/82871.jpg)
![[Hawaii] Carte Des Parties Des Iles Sandwich . . . 1786](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/81545.jpg)
