Leo and Lillian Fortess - PROVENANCE Leo and Lillian FortessBy Philippe Bourgoin Leo and Lillian Fortess were passionate collectors of Pacific artifacts who enriched the lives of all those who visited them at their home in Kanohe Bay, Hawaii. The adventure begins in 1939, with a group of like-minded young people, Leo and Lillian Fortess, then students at the University of Chicago, decided to travel the universe in search of a better world. These will be the Pacific Islands. Leo and Lillian Fortess - Solomon Paddles. © Eric Fortess. With the determination of Lillian, a vessel was found, a schooner named Chance, stoutly built for Artic exploration work and now lying neglected at Stamford, Connecticut. On June 6, 1940, Chance sailed south from New York, crewed by six couples and a hired sailing master. They arrived at San Juan, Puerto Rico, on June 29 and, at this point, three couples decided that they had had enough hazards. The sailing master also departed, leaving a crew of six to sail on into the Caribbean during hurricane season. After a difficult crossing of the Panama Canal, stops were made at Cocos Island, in the Indian Ocean, where they dug for buried treasure, and at several of the Galapagos Islands. In November, they landed in the port of Papeete. The schooner, now badly in need of repair, was hauled out of the water. After three months, the French administration — Europe was then in the throes of the Second World War and the rallying of French Polynesia to Free France was confirmed on September 2, 1940 ordered them to leave the territory. The next stop was Nukuhiva, the largest island of the Marquesas. They were captivated by the remains of what had obviously been a thriving population evidenced by the many deserted paepae stone house platforms. Their collection started here, where they traded clothes and food supplies for their first Pacific artifacts. After the Marquesas, the island of Kauai, in the Hawaiian archipelago, was the first land they sighted. On March 30, 1941, they finally tied up in Honolulu and, parting with their schooner, they settled in Kailua, afterward in Kaneohe Bay. Leo Fortess found work in Pearl Harbor and began, in his spare time, to study the different cultures of the Pacific, an interest he maintained the rest of his life. At the time of the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Fortess was a draftsman for Contractors for the Pacific Naval Air Bases, He was off duty that Sunday but shot rolls of still and movie footage of the attack aftermath, which was later confiscated by military authorities and was never recovered. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Eric Fortess. After the war, Leo, who had been a projectionist when he was a student in Chicago trained people around the island and sold photo equipment retail and wholesale. In 1954 he was appointed manager of Stewart’s Alakea Pharmacy photo department. At that time, genuine bark-cloth beaters, calabashes, stone adzes and other Hawaiian artifacts could be purchased at pawnbrokers and curio shops such as Meyer Goldberg (1917-1981), a dealer in shells and curios or John M. Warriner (1895-1960), a collector and dealer in Pacific artifacts, with a particular interest in Hawaiian calabashes. Warriner sold a considerable number of calabashes to Mrs. Anna C. Cooke, for the collection of ancient Hawaiian calabashes which she formed for The Honolulu Academy of Arts (today Honolulu Museum of Art), an institution she founded. From Mary Peleuli Katherine Hayselden (1883-1959), the granddaughter of Reverend James Hunnewell Kekela (1824-1904), the Fortesses acquired various objects from this region. Hunnewell Kekela was from a family of Hawaiian chiefs, he was the first native to be ordained a Protestant minister in 1849, sent on a mission to the Marquesas Islands, with his wife Naomi Kaeonekane Maka (1828-1902) in the Puamau Bay, from 1853 until 1899. Probably the opportunity to visit and study his favorite islands, Leo Fortess participated, in 1946, in the intensive field research in several branches of natural science that was carried on in the islands of Micronesia by groups of University of Hawaii faculty members. As an assistant photographer he was in charge to make a complete 16 mm picture history of the expedition. The team left by air from Honolulu on July 17, and after a 5-day stay at Guam, went to the island of Yap by LCI (Landing Craft Infantry). After a stay of almost a month, they left Yap on August 22 by air and returned, via Saipan (Mariana Islands) and Guam, to Honolulu on August 28. Fortess developed a close relationship with Kenneth Pike Emory (1897-1992), an American anthropologist and pioneer of Polynesian archaeology who traveled throughout Polynesia and Micronesia for the Bishop Museum. Fortess would show him his latest acquisitions and, in return, Emory would share his extensive knowledge. In the company of Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Henry Buck, 1877-1951), Emory participated in the Mangarevan expedition of 1934, sponsored by the Bishop Museum. After visiting 56 islands on a voyage of over 14,000 kilometers over a period of six months, they returned with an enormous quantity of data. In the 1950s, Fortess brought to Emory’s attention the work of Dr. Willard Frank Libby (1908-1980) on the use of carbon dating in archaeology and paleontology. Thus, the two friends were responsible for the first carbon dating ever made in the Pacific region from charcoal collected from the Kuliouou cave shelter on the island of Oahu. Two other friends were the renowned Māori and Polynesian art expert Terence Tui A Tane Barrow (1923-2001). This New Zealander, was a curator at the Dominion Museum, Wellington (now Te Papa Tongarewa) from 1948 to 1965, and a curator at the Bishop Museum until 1969, and the famous anthropologist Roger G. Rose who has worked as a curator of ethnology (1971-1999) and consultant with the Bishop Museum’s ethnological collections for more than four decades and whose research and publications focus on kahili (feather standards) in all their forms. Dissatisfied with local sources, the Fortesses resorted to the auction sales catalogs in London and New York. Leo and Lillian bid in so many lots in London and Paris auctions over decades but never attended, so some thought they were fictitious bidders that auctions houses used to bid in pieces. Among the many objects which reached the collection in this way are items from the famous James Hooper (1897-1971) sales at Christie’s (1977-1979-1980). In 1989, the Honolulu Academy of Arts dedicated an exhibition to his collection (Selections of Pacific Art from the Collection of Leo and Lillian Fortess, 20th June-1st October). He also participated in another exhibition organized by the art historian and scholar Jerome Feldman, “War in the Pacific” (Hawaii Pacific University Art Gallery, October 11th-November 27th, 1998), a panorama of the fine art of weaponry of the Pacific Islands. Fortess home circa 2002, photo by Gary Tourville. A stream of visitors crowded into Fortess’s home, a typical local house in Hawaii, with sliding doors and louvre windows and, viewing the collection, one could only be struck by its number and variety. The objects were everywhere, on every wall, even suspended from the ceilings. Fine Pacific Islands clubs, Hawaiian stone artifacts, shell jewelry, Papua New Guinea sculptures, necklace lei of yellow mamo feathers, paekaha crown from Marquesas Islands, Sentani dishes... CAPTIONImage 4--Fortess home circa 2002, photo by Gary Tourville Over the years, the Fortess’s supported the Bishop Museum and the Honolulu Academy of Arts in many ways, including donations and practical assistance. More than remarkable collectors, the Fortess’s were ardent defenders of Pacific Island cultures. Leo Fortess served as one of the few non-academic presidents of the Hawaii Anthropological Society, trustees and member of the Hawaiian Historical Society and was a life member of the Bishop Museum and Honolulu Academy of Arts [Thanks to Eric Fortess, Julian Harding and Jerome Feldman]. Treasure box waka huia, Māori, New Zealand. Wood. L.: 53 cm. Ex-coll. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Christie’s Paris, lot 11, October 30, 2018. Māori Pendant hei-tiki, New Zealand. Wood. H.: 7,5 cm. Ex-coll. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Christie’s New York, lot 10, October 30, 2018. Canoe Prow Ornament tiki vaka, Marquesas Islands. Wood. L.: 49 cm. Ex-coll. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Christie’s New York, lot 8, October 30, 2018. Māori head, New Zealand. Wood. H.: 51 cm. Ex-coll. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Sotheby’s Paris, lot 6, December 12, 2017. Figure, Easter Island Moai Kavakava. Wood, bone and obsidian. H.: 44,5 cm. Ex-coll. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Native, Brussels, lot 42, May 15, 2021. Figure, New Caledonia. Wood. H.: 37 cm. Ex-coll. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Christie’s Paris, lot 47, December 6, 2005. Tiki Figure, Marquesas Islands. Stone. H.: 15 cm. Ex-coll. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Christie’s New York, lot 7, October 30, 2018. Neckrest, Sepik, Papua New Guinea. Wood. L.: 56,5 cm. Ex-coll. Leo and Lillian Fortess. © Lempertz, Bruxelles, lot 128, February 1, 2023.
