Lot 1002
Hawaiian Cane with 1883 Hawaii Silver Dollar Embedded in Silver Knob Handle. Presentation Hawaiian walking stick (32") made of native Koa wood topped with an 1883 Hawaiian Silver Dollar and finely inscribed. "Presented by the inmates / of Kalihi Reccu Station / Dr. Walter Hoffman". Hoffman was a doctor who fought against a plague outbreak in 1900. This historic piece was presented to him in honor of his services.
Historic note: Next to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Chinatown fire remains not only the worst civic disaster in Hawaiian history but one of the worst disasters ever initiated in the name of public health by American medical officers anywhere."
The opening paragraph of Plague and Fire sounds very familar with what the COVID-19 is causing today: :"Few people realize that the world's last major epidemic of bubonic plague occurred quite recently; it began circling the globe at the end of the nineteenth century and killed tens of millions of people worldwide before it receded in the early years of the twentieth century. … The disease had broken out in south-central China sometime before 1870. Severe influenzas and other plague-like diseases were common in that region, but most previous outbreaks had been confined to the interior or had disappeared quite quickly. This new illness, however, seemed to expand and strenghten over time." Estimated Value $3,000 - UP
Reference: Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown (Oxford Press, 2005) by James C. Mohr. Book is included.
From the Eclectic Numismatic Treasure Collection (Newman Numismatic Portal).
|
| |
| Realized $2,160 |
