Each copy of this curious work is a more or less unique assemblage and though this copy (bound in contemporary calf, rebacked in the 19th century) contains only 36 specimens of tapa cloth, not 39 as listed, research has shown that the final specimen is very often missing and the last two copies seen at auction have offered 32 and 38 specimens. The text offers an account of cloth manufacture in various South Seas islands.
Cloth-filled and calf-bound ...
Valued at £8000-12,000 in a Sotheby’s sale of May 13 is a copy of the 1787, first and only edition of Alexander Shaw’s Catalogue of different specimens of cloth collected in the three voyages of Captain Cook...
