[TAHITI] Tomb of Queen Pomare IV at ‘Outu’ai’ai point, Arue.

[Circa 1885]. Albumen print photograph, 193 x 152 mm; verso with fully contemporary caption in pencil: Pomare’s tomb – Tahiti; a strong print with dark tones; the print has some light creasing but is otherwise in very good condition; unmounted. [TOGETHER WITH] A smaller albumen print, 110 x 165 mm, with another view of the tomb probably taken around the same time, the verso inscribed in pencil: Pomare’s IV tomb, and with the wet stamp of ‘G. Spitz, Papeete, Tahiti’; heavier creasing than the larger photograph, and a couple of nicks to bottom edge.

Queen Pomare IV reigned for 50 years. Upon her death on September 17, 1877 she was buried in this purpose-built tomb – an imposing pyramid with a rectangular base, constructed from coral blocks. Ten years later, however, her son King Pomare V had her body exhumed and moved to the nearby royal cemetery of the Pomare family. Pomare V ceded the islands to France and became the last monarch of Tahiti. When he died from alcoholism in 1891 he was buried in this tomb that had originally been designed for his mother. It is today known as King Pomare V’s tomb.

Provenance: James Lyle Young (1849-1929), Papeete merchant and Pacific Islands trader; by descent (Melbourne, Australia).