Small kapa fragment from Hawaii, white ground stamped with black circles and dots. Fragment is very thin and heavily embossed in a star-shaped pattern. The embossing is part of the kapa production process. Kapa (the Hawaiian word for tapa) is a cloth made from the inner bark of trees and is widely used in the Pacific for clothing and bedding, as well as secular, sacred, and ceremonial uses.
tapa (bark cloth)
tapa (bark cloth)
Original To Stephen Phillips House (Salem, Mass.),
E3116
Unknown
Pacific Island Group
5 3/8 x 3 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation
2006.44.3636
full digital version on Google Play. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=IKgxAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en
Hawaii (United States)
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