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Fragment of Hawaiian kapa cloth, tan-colored ground with large blossom-shaped area made of brownish irregular wheel shapes partially covered with splotches of yellow. Cloth heavily embossed with small triangle shapes some of which appear to have been lightly rubbed with charcoal or some other gray/black substance. 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.),
E16863
Unknown
Pacific Island Group
13 1/8 x 9 3/8 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation
2006.44.3653
Available in full digital reproduction on Google Play. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=IKgxAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en
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