HONOLULU, HI.- On Aug. 5, the Honolulu Museum of Artʻs Collections Committee unanimously voted to give 24 pieces of dinnerware and glassware to Iolani Palace, the official renaissance of Hawai‘i's monarchy.

That same day, Honolulu Museum of Art director Stephan Jost called Kippen de Alba Chu, executive director of ‘Iolani Palace, to tell him the good news. Now, the museum will transfer the works to the Palace on Nov. 12.

"Iolani Palace is extremely grateful to the Honolulu Museum of Art for this very generous and important gift of original Palace pieces,” says de Alba Chu. “We look forward to placing them on public display in the Palace's State Dining Room and the China Closet. In addition, we hope that this action by the Honolulu Museum of Art will encourage others to donate their original Palace artifacts as well so that they may be enjoyed and admired by everyone."

The eclectic mix of dinnerware and glassware, originally commissioned by King Kalākaua from 1888 to 1981 for use at Iolani Palace, includes Pillivuyt porcelain dishes made in France and wheel engraved Bohemian crystal glassware. There are also two small pieces of silver; a Royal Guard belt buckle and a fork.

Following the 1893 coup d’état in Hawai‘i, items from the Palace and the National Collection, which were housed at Iolani Palace and Aliʿiolani Hale, were put to auction, entering into private and public collections around the world. The museum’s Iolani Palace pieces came as gifts from private collectors over the course of eight decades. Some items were donated as early as 1927 when the museum was first established, and others as recently as 2006.

“Many of these gifts were given to the Honolulu Museum of Art before the Palace was restored and opened to the public in the 1970s,” says Stephan Jost, director of the Honolulu Museum of Art. “Without the option of returning the dinnerware and glassware to the Palace, yet wanting them to be cared for and protected, these collectors turned to us. With the Friends of ‘Iolani Palace today making the preservation of the Palace’s cultural legacy its mission, it makes sense that these objects should be returned home now. We know that the Palace will hold them in the public trust for generations to come.”

“Transferring the items back to Iolani Palace is perfectly befitting, given their origins in the Palace collection,” says Healoha Johnston, assistant curator of the arts of Hawai‘i at the Honolulu Museum of Art. “We are so fortunate to have a great working relationship with the Palace team. Returning these pieces only strengthens the potential for future collaboration and increased dialogue between our institutions.”

It’s not the first gift the Honolulu Museum of Art has made to Iolani Palace. In 2010, someone anonymously left an antique armchair on the steps of the Honolulu Museum of Art School. When it was identified as originally coming from Iolani Palace’s Blue Room, the museum immediately handed it over to the Palace, where it was refurbished and now on view.