HONOLULU — Some of the more extravagant personal possessions of King Kalakaua went on display under glass for the first time at 'Iolani Palace today.

The exhibit in the jewelry gallery includes a gold cigarette case drizzled with 99 diamonds, a trio of emeralds and a quartet of rubies — the 1881 birthday gift from the king's sister-in-law Poomaikelani.

On display with the case are a pipe carved from a white mineral known as meerschaum, a cane chiseled from a narwhal tusk and another cane made of wood and gold. They are joined by an engraved, gold cigarette case and a 122-year-old watch from Switzerland, palace curator Stuart Ching said.

An ornately carved calabash bowl and an accompanying stand — 50th birthday gifts to the king — are available for viewing in the palace's music room.

The exhibition began a few days before the palace honors the 172nd birthday of King Kalakaua, who built the palace 126 years ago. The birthday celebration is set for Sunday with a concert and Royal Guard review.

Kalakaua was the second-to-last monarch of Hawai'i. The last was his sister, Queen Lili'uokalani, who was overthrown. In subsequent decades, many of the monarchy's artifacts were sold and dispersed through the U.S. and in four foreign countries, Ching said.

Palace curators have been searching for those items for 40 years, and have returned many of them to the palace, including glassware found in Australia and a table discovered in the Iowa governor's mansion.

The palace maintains a "most wanted" list of still-missing pieces on its Web site, such as a Gothic revival hutch, a Venus de Milo plaster cast and zinc statues.

But palace officials did recently recover large quantities of items from Massachusetts and California, Ching added.

The curator would not place a monetary value on the collection now on display.

"From a historical point of view," he said, the artifacts "are priceless."