Tribal Art London 2018

Fragment of a Tapa cloth

Provenance: from inscribed label on reverse side of the cloth:

‘Native cloth from Rarotonga or Aitutaki given to Mrs Stirling by Revd. John Williams on his last visit to England.  It is made from the bark of the Candle Nut Tree, and the juice has been used to draw the pattern on it, with a sharp pointed stick.  It is not made now in the islands.  Mr W. returned to them in 1838, after staying some years in England to stir up the churches and publish his book Missionary Enterprises’.

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