FROM CARD: "16' x 16' BUT FOLDED AND SEWED DOUBLE, THEREFORE, 8' X 16'. PROPELLER DESIGN, FIJI BORDER. SEWED WITH ONE-INCH STITCHES WITH FLAT INNER BARK OF SOME PLANT. SMALL SAMPLES TAKEN BY MR. K. P. EMORY, BISHOP MUSEUM, WHO GAVE US THIS INFORMATION. 6/24/41."
Peale catalogue identifies # 1435 - 1456 as "Ngatu." Bark cloth prepared for curtains by the natives of the Fiji Islands."
The tapa "tent" is constructed from a single large sheet of tapa that has been folded in half and stitched closed along the sides to create a bag like structure. It is constructed from smaller rectangular sections that have been seamed together to form the one large sheet. The tapa is folded along one long side and seamed along the two fringed short sides. One long side is open. The sides have been seamed with a running stitch of a flat, stiff, yellow, plant fiber, approximately 0.5 cm in diameter, possibly Pandanus. The ends are knotted to the tapa in the corners. For this description, the folded edge is the top edge and the open edge is the bottom. Side A has the catalog numbers on the exterior while side B does not. The tapa is completely covered with applied designs on both sides using a grayish black colorant and both an orange brown and reddish brown colorant. The colorant has a glossy surface. The large design fields at the centers on both sides are very similar and consist of repeating elongated hemispheres that touch forming pinwheel like forms across the surface. The hemispheres alternate in color between the orange brown and the gray black. Between the hemispheres the tapa has parallel applied lines in orange brown. The 80 cm wide borders have similar design elements on both sides consisting of narrow densely embellished bands of repeating applied designs in black and reddish brown. The designs on the borders appear to be partially applied with stencilling. A length of light brown braided cordage runs along the interior long fold and extends through the tapa at the viewer's upper right when on side A. The upper left is now detached and hangs loose inside the tapa.
