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Object Number 00-8-70/55342
Display Title Tapa cloth
Descriptions
Object Description Tapa cloth known as ngatu. Medium-weight multiple layered cloth, overall tone off-white. Grain direction is widthwise on face and lengthwise on rear. Four cut edges with overlapping pasted joins. There are three separate beaten strips across length. Decoration is primarily on one side though dye/pigment has penetrated to rear side. Rubbed over a leaf design tablet n a matte red-brown. Design pattern is overall with four langangas with elongated traingles in each. The left and right areas (tapa) each approx. 9 inches in width, are primarily unpigmented with only a few red-brown linear marks painted on the diagonal across the width. Catalogue number is written in red orange paint at one end on the rear (in the unpigmented region).
Inventory Description Tapa, rectangular, off-white, elongated triangles and diagonal linear designs
Classification
  • Tapa
Department Ethnographic
Geography/Provenience/Site Name
Oceania / Tonga / <State> / Eua Island
Additional Geographic Terms Tongatapu Group
Dimensions Overall: 180.34 x 332.74 cm (71 x 131 in.)
Quantity 1
Label on object 55342
Provenance
Collector Alexander Agassiz (1899-1900)
Collector Dr. William McMichael Woodworth (1899-1900)
Collector U.S. Fish Commission Ship Albatross Expedition (1899-1900)
Donor Alexander Agassiz (1900)

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