Ni'ihau shell collection 'returned'
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
A Texas man fulfilled one his wife's last wishes by donating a valuable collection of 22 Ni'ihau shell lei and five pairs of earrings to the Kaua'i Museum.
Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser
Most of the lei in the collection are made of prized kahelelani shells, the most rare of the species, that vary in color from pink to brown and black. The finest kahelelani lei can sell for $8,000 to $10,000 but are worth three times that amount because Ni'ihau shell lei-making is a dying art, according to Aunty Lena Mendonca of 'Ele'ele, an appraiser of Ni'ihau shell jewelry.
Kaua'i Museum director Carol Lovell says the donated collection of shell lei will help "tell the Ni'ihau story." The lei were donated to the museum after the death of a Texas woman who collected them during her visits to Kaua'i.
Warren "Randy" and Patsy Porter of Boerne, Texas, befriended Mendonca when they first began visiting the island in 1988. "She always called me as soon as they came," Mendonca said.
"Many of those strands she purchased directly from Ni'ihau people. The quality of the collection is superior — the artistry and the workmanship, it's perfectly done."
On her last visit to Kaua'i, Patsy Porter told her husband and Kaua'i Museum Director Carol Lovell that she wanted the collection to be returned to the island after her death.
The Texas woman died of cancer in 2001 and her husband scattered her ashes from a helicopter in Kalalau. He packed the lei away. Many months later, while looking at a photograph of his wife, he remembered her wish to donate the collection and called Lovell last month.
Lovell said the museum has some shell lei but nothing matching Porter's collection.
"The museum never had a collection of this caliber. It will help us to tell the Ni'ihau story," she said.
The lei and earrings should be on permanent display this summer, and will be exhibited in the koa shadow boxes that Patsy Porter used to display them at home in Texas.
Porter became interested in Ni'ihau shell lei after reading a travel book on the Garden Isle, and on the couple's first visit she bought a lei for $1,600 from a vendor at Spouting Horn. At the time, Mendonca valued the lei at $2,500.
The collection includes other shrewd buys, including a Ni'ihau shell choker Randy Porter bought for $4 at a Texas garage sale, according to Lovell.
Additional lei were purchased from the late Auntie May Kelley, a famous lei maker from Ni'ihau who lived on Kaua'i, and from other noted lei makers such as Josephine Kelley and Luana Kaohelauli'i.
Liz Cope, an avid collector and owner of the Hawaiian Trading Post in Lawa'i, which claims to have the world's largest collection of Ni'ihau shell lei, said the Porters shared an intense interest in the uniquely Hawaiian art form.
"She would come in and look at the leis and talk story. Mr. Porter would just stare at the leis. They really appreciated the art, more so that anybody I've ever met," Cope said.
"It's wonderful how someone could just give that much. It's really a beautiful story."
Correction: Hawai'i does not provide professional licensing for jewelry appraisers. Also, there are a number of jewelers and others in Hawai'i who appraise Ni'ihau shell necklaces. A previous version of this story contained incorrect information about the appraisals.
