A pair of cuff buttons with portraits of an Etruscan woman that belonged to the estate of Queen Lili'uokalani were sold for $2 in 1924 at a downtown Honolulu auction.

The cuff buttons are now back at 'Iolani Palace, thanks to Jean Starks and the Friends of 'Iolani Palace, a nonprofit group working to recover furnishings and artifacts that were part of the home of the Hawaiian monarchy more than a century ago.

Starks' father, the late Vice Adm. W. Mack Angas, purchased the cuff buttons at the auction for his wife and they stayed in his family for eight decades.

Last year, Starks decided it was time to bring them back to Hawai'i. The Hawai'i-born woman donated them to 'Iolani Palace, which had documentation showing they had been sold for $2 at the auction in the ballroom of the Alexander Young Building on Bishop Street.

"Neither my mother nor I ever forgot where they came from," Starks told palace staff.

The cuff buttons are the latest success story for the Friends of 'Iolani Palace.

"We are still engaged in a worldwide search for original palace artifacts, and if anyone has artifacts out there, please let us know," said Stuart Ching, palace curator since 2003. "We still have a long ways to go to refurnish the building to what it looked like during the time of the monarchy, and that's our main goal."

FROM 1882 TO 1893

Specifically, palace officials are looking for items that can be traced back to the building during the time it was completed under the reign of King David Kalakaua in 1882, to the overthrow of Lili'uokalani in 1893.

"Our goal is to refurnish the state departments on the first floor and the private living quarters on the second floor to what they looked like when the king and queen lived here," Ching said.

But despite some successes, many items remain elusive.

Palace staff estimates that roughly 10,000 various items were housed at 'Iolani at the time of the overthrow. About 240 items that were not auctioned are now on loan from the state. Staff estimates between 85 percent and 90 percent of furnishings and artifacts remain outstanding.

Among the objects desired most is Kalakaua's bedroom suite, which was gilded and made of ebonized wood, Ching said.

The staff uses several methods to prove whether an object fits the criteria.

After the overthrow, the palace remained the seat of political government. But whatever furnishings the government considered unsuitable for office use were sold in a series of auctions over the next two decades. The royal family's personal belongings also were sold at auction.

INVENTORIES OFFER CLUE

Old inventories of items are one key to verifying if something once was part of the palace.

Palace staff also look at old photographs and receipts that show when some items were purchased for the building, Ching said. Another form of artifact-checking comes from correspondence written by royalty and visitors that mention items that were in the palace.

The staff is looking for specific pieces, "but in a building of this size, there are lots of objects that may not have appeared on the inventories but families know that they came from here," Ching said. "So there are objects we may not know of."

Palace officials did turn away the owner of a wood console with an ornamental peacock on it that he believes was once the musical cabinet of Princess Ka'iulani, "the peacock princess."

Palace executive director Kippen de Alba Chu said there was no evidence that the item was ever in the palace or belonged to royalty. The item currently is on sale on eBay with a "buy now" price of $6.5 million.

Because the Friends group is cash poor, it depends on donations of the items.

The estate of Ayako Ifuku, for instance, recently donated to the palace a series of Japanese Imperial gifts that were given to Kalakaua by the emperor of Japan during his trip there in 1881. The items included kyodai or dressing table from the Edo Period (1603-1867), a gold lacquer footed bowl and a wash basin ornamented with the Tokugawa family crest.

Items have come from 38 different states and "a host of countries," Ching said.

In 2003, local Masons groups played a key role in helping the Friends secure a Knights Templar Masonic sword that was made by Kalakaua.

While the Friends won that offering at Sotheby's Auction House with a bid of $13,000, Ching said, a handful of other treasured possessions that once belonged to Hawai'i's "Merrie Monarch" were won by other parties.

The Friends also are looking for help in the restoration of different items that have been sitting in storage and have been in too poor condition to display.

The Pulama 'Ia, or "cherished objects," program provides funds for repair and restoration of items.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.