QUEEN LILIUOKALANI'S music cabinet british monarchy vtg guitar hawaiian royalty

The cabinet was crafted in the United Kingdom and the detective work points to Buckingham Palace. Windsor Castle and the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon have provided a paper trail suggesting (but not confirming) that Queen Victoria was the gifter. Adding to the regality of the piece, the cabinetmaker, William Cowie of Shapland & Petter, imbedded King Henry's name into the backboard. The 2nd photo in our series above is a copy of Cowie's original HENRY IV sketch as provided by the Government of Great Britain.
Liliuokalani's love of Shakespeare is well-documented. She even quotes him in her autobiography, "HAWAII'S STORY BY HAWAII'S QUEEN". A recommended read is, "Shakespeare and the Ali'i Nui" by Professor Theresa M. DiPasquale of Whitman College. It was published by the University of Georgia and is free online, the PDF version is best. Note the HENRY IV references just above the concluding Lunalilo-Liliuokalani section.
Confirming ownership: attached to the cabinet is a handwritten document from Queen Liliuokalani. She wrote her 24+ words on the six bone tiles found within the cabinet. Our comparison P sample (last photo in our series above) came from her 1895 letter to President Cleveland. Of special note, the ink spot on both P's where she first forms the letter.
Queen Victoria's reign began in 1837 as the Royal Houses of Kamehameha & Kalakaua fell victim to Hawaii's mass extinction. Iolani Palace's next ruler was to be "Queen Victoria" but in 1899 the half-Scot Princess Victoria-Kaiulani Cleghorn would also lose her life. Liliuokalani became the House of Kalakaua's sole-survivor. She entered the 20th century alone, passing away in 1917. By 1918 both Iolani Palace and Washington Place were publicly controlled U.S. buildings and Liliuokalani's music cabinet was moved nextdoor to the still-private estate of her sister, Princess Likelike (lee-kee-lee-kee), d. 1887. Also the birth site of Princess Victoria-Kaiulani, The Peacock Princess, the cabinet remained hidden on those sacred grounds for the next century as Honolulu's best kept secret.
The photo above is of the imprisoned queen ascending the tower steps. It was published in newspapers around the World and garnished her great sympathy. Supporting the 1891 Gift of Ascension theory: while locked in the tower, Liliuokalani writes that her home was ransacked by the overthrowers, her furniture torn apart as they searched for treasonous documents. This cabinet, from the foreign entity also vying for the Islands, has two places where documents could have been hidden. Both sections have been ripped open and hastily repaired. As described by the queen, this cabinet was searched for hidden documents.
But we can only speculate: How & when she acquired the cabinet and how & when it left her estate is still not known to us. Victoria could have read the 1895 tower prison story in the newspaper along with the rest of the World and had it commissioned at that time.
In May of 1899, about 60 days after the death of the Crown Princess Victoria-Kaiulani (Queen Victoria's namesake), Queen Victoria entered an odd & mysterious payment in her gift ledger for gift furniture to a Shapland & Petter associate. Windsor Castle believes that if the cabinet was commissioned by Victoria that the 1899 entry supports the attribution. And it's our understanding that the 1899 entry is the only unaccounted-for piece of Queen Victoria's gifted furniture. And again, Victoria noted that payment sixty days after the death of The Peacock Princess. Kaiulani was also known as "Hawaii's last hope" and Aloha 'Oe means "farewell to thee". Was Victoria conceding defeat?
Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen was published in 1898 and Liliuokalani does not mention this cabinet in that book. She almost certainly would have which supports the May of 1899 Windsor Castle gift theory. Unless, of course, Liliuokalani was still working with Victoria to restore the monarchy and downplaying all associations with her? Researching this artifact has been difficult because in 1901 Victoria ordered all references and/or communications between Her and Liliuokalani be destroyed (for Liliuokalani's protection). By 1899 Victoria would have already started hiding & destroying connections between her & Liliuokalani which is consistent with the mysterious Windsor Castle gift notation. Victoria only noted the price paid to the Shapland & Petter associate (Gillow's). She did not describe the furniture, nor did she say who it was for (Liliuokalani was well-published, a renowned musician and "Music cabinet" could have identified the recipient). Victoria's gift ledger was a diary of sorts and, with the exception of this one piece of furniture, she had always described the furniture and named the giftee (1837-1901) .