[C18th Tapa Cloth Samples]

Four large and impressive pieces of C18th tapa cloth, originally inserted in a third edition of the published account of Cook’s second voyage of exploration, A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World, London 1779. 

The four pieces were included in the index is contained in volume one. Each piece was identified in the index with the same title, ‘South Sea Cloth’, written in manuscript in sepia ink. All were placed in volume one, in the following order;

Three on pages, 127, 153 and 163, within the chapter describing Otaheiti  (Tahiti). 

The fourth piece was placed on page 219, within the chapter of the Friendly Isles (Tonga).  

There was a great interest and trade in tapa cloth samples after Alexander Shaw published a collection of samples collected on Cook’s third voyage, titled; A Catalogue of the Different Specimens of Cloth collected in the three voyages of Captain Cook, To the Southern Hemisphere; with a Particular Account of the Manner of the Manufacturing the same in the various Islands of the South Seas;..