Lot 195
[Kaiulani] Autogaph Book With Original Robert Louis Stevenson Poem Written For Her. Autograph book given to Kaiulani by her mother, Likelike, when she was about eight years old (the earliest signatures are dated 1883 and Kaiulani was born in 1875). The 4 x 7 in. book has plush wine-colored covers and is filled with autographs of numerous American naval officers, as well as British, Russians, and others, and family members such as her half-sister Anna and her Aunt Bernice. There are also vintage photographs of four ships affixed to the pages: H.M.S. Conquest; U.S.S. Mohican; H.M.S. Carolina; and H.M.S. Cormorant.
The pièce de résistance, however, is the famous, original poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson for Princess Kaiulani on the eve of her departure for England in 1889 to pursue her education there. Stevenson arrived in Hawaii in January 1889 and became friends with King Kalakaua, who introduced Stevenson to his fellow Scotsman, Archibald Cleghorn (Kaiulani's father). Stevenson and the 13-year-old young princess became good friends and he wrote this poem in April 1889 in her autograph book:
"Forth from her land to mine she goes
The island maid, the island rose,
Light of heart and bright of face:
The daugher of a double race.
Her islands here, in southern sun,
Shall mourn their Kaiulani gone;
And I, in her dear Banyan shade,
Look vainly for my little maid.
But our Scots islands far away
Shall glitter with unwonted day,
And cast for once their tempests by
To smile in Kaiulani's eye
Robert Louis Stevenson"
Below the poem, Stevenson added a long holograph note: "written in April, to Kaiulani in the April of her age; and at Waikiki within easy walk of Kaiulani's banyan. When she comes to my land and her fathers, and the rain beats upon the window (as I fear it will) let her look at this page; it will be like a weed gathered and pressed at home; and she will remember her own islands, and the shadow of the mighty tree; and she will hear the peacocks screaming in the dusk and the wind blowing in the palms; and she will think of her father sitting there alone."
The book is in a manila envelope inscribed "Elizabeth-Louisa Cleghorn Smith / From her affectionate Dad." Elizabeth was the daughter of Percy Thomas Cleghorn, who served as personal secretary to Archibald Cleghorn, Kaiulani's father. Percy's grandfather, Thomas Davis Cleghorn, was Archibald's brother.
Estimated Value $5,000 - 10,000.
Descended from Kaiulani through the Cleghorn family.
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| Realized $40,800 |
