Lot 2017: EMMERT, PAUL. 1826-1867. HAWAIIAN PANORAMA, TOTALING OVER 25 FEET IN LENGTH.

HAWAIIAN PANORAMA, TOTALING OVER 25 FEET IN LENGTH.
Funeral of His late Majesty Kamehameha III. Honolulu: January 10, 1855. Letterpress title-page, contents leaf plus 17 lithographed panoramic panels (including 2 duplicates), 5 of which are partially hand-colored. Panels measure approximately 130 x 485 mm, some are single sheets, some are two joined sheets. Letterpress leaves laid down, title-page trimmed and with loss to imprint; lithographed panels removed from previous backing, soiled, about 6 with small insect-damage to edges, one panel separated at join.

Extremely rare Kamehameha III panorama, a very early example of lithography in Hawaii. The present example appears to be a work-in-progress or possibly a fragment, as not all the figures listed on the contents leaf are identifiable. Two of the panels bear partial, additional lithography of the same subject on the versos. In any case it is unlikely that any great number of "complete" copies were ever issued. This is an impressive example, totaling about 320 inches. It depicts the Royal catafalque accompanied by High Chiefs and small Kahilis bearing Hawaiian feather standards, the Hawaiian cavalry and infantry, the Royal Household troops, the Artillery Corps captained by S. Bingham, the American Hawaiian guard with officers Brewer, Penhallow, Hoffman, Brown, Reiners & Coady, and representatives of the Royal Navy among many others.
Paul Emmert was a Swiss artist [1826-1867] and a well-known forty-niner who ran the Bear Hotel in Sacramento. In 1853 he moved to Hawaii where he resided until his death. He published a famous series of views of Honolulu with Britton & Rey of San Francisco, but extremely little survives from the lithography shop he ran out of Honolulu itself. See Forbes, Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941?, p 138.
See illustration.