Note: This sample book is very similar to one at the Boston 

 Athenaeum (original binding, housed in a box, and to date 

 unidentified). The two books have a general resemblance in most 

 respects, including size and character of contents. Both contain 

 examples of the same tapa designs and both contain approxi- 

 mately the same proportion of patterned and "watermarked" 

 leaves. Some of the designs in both books are like those known to 

 have been made by means of Hawaiian bamboo stamps (Brigham 

 1976, Plate 41) and the "watermarked" pages show patterns like 

 those of Hawaiian beaters. 



It is possible that the same compiler put both books (and 

 possibly others) together, all cut from the same large pieces of 

 tapa. Since neither contains any text material, it is likely that they 

 were privately, rather than commercially, produced. 



In 1787, bound volumes of bark cloth samples accompanied by 

 a text were compiled and printed for Alexander Shaw. Accord- 

 ing to Kaeppler ( 1 978) "a large number of the pieces included are 

 from Hawaii and because of the date, it is unlikely that the pieces 

 could have come from any other voyage than Cook's." Some 

 pieces, she adds, are from the Society Islands and Tonga, and a 

 few may be from Rurutu. Kaeppler states that about thirty Shaw 

 volumes are known today (from many of which sections of leaves 

 have been cut out). Also extant are other bound collections of 

 bark cloth about which she does not offer details. According to 

 Anne Leonard (1980), of the copies extant "each copy has a 



somewhat different selection and arrangement of tapa 

 specimens." 



Some so-called "pirated" pieces of decorated bark cloth have 

 come to light in Cambridge during research for this paper. In 

 1982, a large piece with a rather unusual blue background that 

 was brought to the Peabody Museum of Harvard University for 

 identification had a piece measuring about 9"X 12" cut out of one 

 border. There are several small, obviously "homemade" booklets 

 of decorated bark cloth pieces in storage at the Peabody Museum. 

 Two of these are stitched together with ordinary sewing-thread 

 (38-48-70/907). Another is accompanied by a handwritten note 

 identifying it as bark cloth from the Hawaiian Islands, 1872 

 (142-15-70/2019). A third contains six undecorated, "water- 

 marked" leaves (37623). 



73 



