Irregular L-shaped kapa fragment from Hawaii. Original white ground has turned brown with age. Front of fragment stamped with black wavy lines and rectangles. Fragment may have been part of a kapa moe, or layered bedding piece. 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.),
E16864
Unknown
Pacific Island Group
8 1/2 x 12 2/8 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation
2006.44.3649
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