Sinclair — Hauhele Hawaiian Indigenous Flower c.1885 (Chromolithograph)
Sinclair — Hauhele Hawaiian Indigenous Flower c.1885 (Chromolithograph)
A chromolithograph depicting Hauhele — a Hawaiian flowering plant documented by Isabella Sinclair during her years on Niihau and Kauai. Sinclair worked with local Hawaiian informants who shared vernacular plant names and traditional medicinal uses. A direct documentary record of a species native to ecosystems that have since been substantially altered by habitat loss and invasive species.
Original 1885 chromolithograph printed by Leighton Brothers, London. Folio format (approx. 36.7 × 27.2 cm).
About Isabella McHutcheson Sinclair (1840–1890)
Isabella McHutcheson Sinclair was a Scottish-born botanist who spent her youth in New Zealand before settling in Hawaii on the islands of Niihau (the so-called "Forbidden Island") and Kauai. Working with local Hawaiian informants who shared vernacular plant names and traditional medicinal uses, and corresponding with Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), she produced the most important 19th-century record of Hawaiian plants.
About the Work
Indigenous Flowers of the Hawaiian Islands (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1885) contains 44 chromolithographed plates printed by the celebrated Leighton Brothers of London, after Sinclair's watercolors. Harold St. John (Professor of Botany, University of Hawaii) wrote in 1954: "This is the first book with colour pictures of Hawaiian flowering plants. Even today it has more colour plates of Hawaiian plants than any other book." It was also one of the earliest books to use "perfect binding" — leading many surviving copies to lose plates and pages, making loose plates relatively available.
Scarcity & Market Context
Complete copies of Indigenous Flowers in original binding are rare and sell in the $3,500–$8,000 range. Of the 1,300+ endemic Hawaiian plant species, 100 are extinct and 273 are threatened or endangered — Sinclair's plates are the only color visual record of many.
Institutional Holdings
Complete copies at the Chicago Botanic Garden Library (Rare Book Collection), the USDA National Agricultural Library (in the Biodiversity Heritage Library), the Bishop Museum (Honolulu), and major Hawaiian institutional collections.
Dimensions
Sheet approximately 14.5 × 10.75 inches (36.7 × 27.2 cm)
Frame: This piece ships unframed — the sheet or plate only. We can recommend framers in your area or ship to your preferred framer. Professional framing with archival materials typically runs $150–$400 depending on size and finish.
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Important Buyer Notice
These pieces are antique originals, ranging from approximately 100 to over 400 years old. Each piece will show varying degrees of age-appropriate condition: paper toning, foxing, edge wear, fold marks, minor restoration, light staining, and other natural signs of age are common and expected for works of this period. Condition varies from piece to piece.
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