Pearly shells

Queen Kapiolani traveled to London to attend Queen Victoria’s 50th Jubilee celebration in 1887 dressed in her Victorian best, adorned with ropes of Niihau shells that, from a distance, looked like strands of pearls.

Royal portraits at that time showed queens and princesses in conservative choker-length pearls, a symbol of purity. It’s interesting to imagine the Hawaiian queen’s unrestrained jewelry choice capturing the attention of Europeans and sparking a desire for a similar look that would be taken up by flappers and a young designer named Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel.

It’s enough to make one look at the Niihau shell lei in a fresh light.

En route to England, the queen stopped in New York and was photographed in her shells. That photo is now part of the Bishop Museum exhibition "Ni‘ihau Shell Lei: Ocean Origins, Living Traditions," which showcases a private collection of contemporary Niihau shell lei along with pieces from the museum’s archives. The exhibition will be on display in the Long Gallery through Jan. 27.

The exhibition was initially planned to be part of last fall’s Alfred Shaheen exhibition at the museum, but it became apparent to curators the shells could stand on their own.

"We know they were popular in the 1800s, and perhaps they were being used in ornaments in pre-Western-contact Hawaii," said Betty Lou Kam (no relation to author), director of cultural collections for the museum.

Unfortunately, the shell lei were never a part of serious study by scientists because of their pure ornamental quality and lack of symbolism.

"With something like the lei niho palaoa (braided hair and ivory), we know what it represents and we know what it means," Kam said. "Niihau shell lei didn’t occupy such a predominant role in the culture. It wasn’t strong in what it represents, so it was overlooked."

The oldest shells in the collection — carbon-dated from pre- to post-Western contact in the late 1700s — were discovered by Kenneth Emory and his team of archaeologists in 1960 at Nualolo Kai on Kauai. The four-strand child’s bracelet was strung on the same kind of olona cordage used in feather cloaks, utilizing a knotting method associated with men’s kupee, or leglets.

There is also a photograph of a Niihau shell lei, collected along with other items Capt. James Cook brought back from his voyages across the Pacific, that is now part of the British Museum collection. There is creativity shown in the centuries-old strand, with shells strung vertically and horizontally for interest.

"This told us they were wearing Niihau shells before contact, and wearing them in a variety of ways," said Kam. "The attraction was the small shells at that point. The style we see later had cowries as clasps."

Although all the islands were home to the tiny mollusks — most commonly Leptothyra verruca, Euplica varians and Graphicomassa margarita — that build the shells, those from Niihau are most prized because of their shine and luster.

Little is known about the reason the Niihau shells have a more polished look than their neighbor island counterparts. Kam speculated it could be anything from diet to the way they arrive on shore, perhaps with less tumbling in rough waves.

Part of the exhibition is devoted to ocean health and the sea creatures, without which we would not have these pearly treasures whose popularity increased between the 1920s and ’40s as people began to use them as elegant, versatile and collectible gift items. Today, Niihau shell lei can sell for $3,000 to $10,000 or more.

Although colored shells are favored today, in earlier times white shells were prized. Included in the exhibition is Queen Liliuokalani’s collection of simple white momi (pearl) strands.

Laws were enacted in 2004 to protect the shells’ value and support traditional shell jewelry makers. In order to be called Niihau shell jewelry, 80 percent of a piece must comprise shells from Niihau, which few have access to, and the jewelry must be made in Hawaii.