On Jan. 6, 1888, King David Kalakaua penned a letter of "heartfelt thanks" to Commodore John Stiles Dickerson. "Dear Sir: I take great pleasure in announcing to you the arrival of your most magnificent present of a silver yacht. It is unique in appearance and most appropriately named after the Queen, 'Kapiolani.' I shall treasure it most highly and it is now one of the chief attractions of the articles in my Library at the Iolani Palace."

Generations passed, and Islanders pooled their resources to restore 'Iolani Palace to its former luster. The Kawananakoa family, descendants of royal ali'i, gave the decorative silver ship back to the 'Iolani Palace from their family collection.

Now, with help from one of the newest members of the Palace 'ohana — Martin & MacArthur — the restored ship will again be a chief attraction in the king's library. The company's artists, furniture designers and expert koa wood craftsmen are teaming up to create a period reproduction of a glass case and table that housed the treasure in Kalakaua's day.

The company is "honored to be chosen the fine furniture maker for 'Iolani Palace," says Michael Tam, Martin & MacArthur's CEO. That relationship has allowed Martin & MacArthur to create reproductions for 'Iolani Palace, and pieces inspired by the designs of the period that are available to the public.

To build a copy of the case that originally held Kala-kaua's silver ship, Martin & MacArthur's computer design expert, Doug Gordon, will be working from a tiny image discovered online by Stuart Ching. No original photo or drawing has been found by the palace staff to date.

"The process of historic re-creation is detective work at its hardest," Gordon said, "especially when we don't even have remains of an original."

Martin & MacArthur built a connection to 'Iolani Palace when company founder Jon Martin was inspired to re-create a clef settee owned by Queen Lili'uokalani, designed more than 100 years ago by Big Island cabinetmaker Henry Weeks Jr. Calling it the Clef Bench, the company updated its design, using super-curly koa.

The Clef Bench was one of the most popular bidding items featured in the palace's annual fundraiser for palace restoration, the Royal Garden Party.

The koa available to these craftsmen fills a 2,600-square-foot Kalihi workshop warehouse. They buy from authorized sources on the Big Island, and kiln-dry each individual board.

Small pieces, trimmed from large furniture, are also carved and laser cut into a new line of gift items, available at Martin & MacArthur shops and in the 'Iolani Palace gift shop. Carving and crafting is all done on site.

The clef bench, with a price of nearly $10,000, is for sale in Martin & MacArthur's showroom. Every furniture piece created by the company has a wood-burned number and is signed by Jon Martin, reminiscent of the fact that every palace furnishing has the Kalakaua crest burned on the underside.

Palace curator Stuart Ching says there is a need to re-create 'Iolani Palace furniture. "We spend years doing a worldwide search for any piece that is documented by early photos of the palace rooms. When the search yields nothing, we go to re-creation."

"After tracking it for 40 years, we found one trapezoidal window bench," Ching said. "That allowed us to copy seven more for the upstairs windows."

One major item on the detective search list is Kalakaua's bed. "We have three of the four beds, but not the king's," Ching said.

What they do have is a company ready and able to reproduce the illusive treasure.

None of the actual reproduction furnishings will be reproduced and sold, but as with the clef bench, pieces inspired by royal designs are being considered for limited-edition reproduction by Martin & MacArthur, with a portion of the sales donated toward palace restoration.