Post #742338 by Bay Park Buzzy on Tue, May 5, 2015 2:11 PM

I didn't find any tapa this week. Still a little soon to call it a drought, but I'm worried nonetheless...

I hadn't gone to Goodwill in months, but when I went by the other day, the voice in my head said to go. Spider sense tingling, I found this crappy Indonesian tiki on the shelf full of baskets.

It was either the tiki, or the 3 pair of work shorts I bought that made my spider sense go like that. Still can't tell which was the trigger...

Polyart unmarked Schirman piece.

I have two like this: one marked poly art, and the other not marked. This one is slightly larger than those two.

Auction catalog:


Some of the listings are credited "From the collection of a gentleman"

Samoan outrigger:

On 2015-05-04 09:13, Teadoir wrote:
Thanks Buz! I knew someone amongst the big brains here would be able to tell me something! My next question though, is what would something like this have been intended for? Cream, was it made his tourist peace, where they going to cut it up and make skirts and of it, what?

Just some ramblings about tapa off the top of my head:
Tapa didn't work well for clothes because moisture would separate the layers. They would have used it as decoration and hung it up. They're often made for wedding and funerals. Some were packed away that had important historical value, like "the King gave this piece to Grandpa..."
Tapa is really labor intensive, so it has a value to them for that reason. The larger the piece, the more the value. Most tapa is sectioned out in predetermined sizes. Your piece is cool because it has both edges. That was the standard layout, two white borders, Design up middle, numbered up the edge. All these are standard sizes. That's why we get so many pieces that have a 15 foot dimension in them. The numbers mark how big the piece is. Larger piece= more numbers=more value. Your piece, based on it's size would have a special name attributed it. Like half sheet, full sheet, quarter share, based on how many numbers.
Plus, there is this whole cultural thing going on so far as the value. If you got no tapa on Tonga, you're poor. Rich people got a lot of tapa. When an important guest would come over, you would slice off a slab of your big tapa and give it to your guest to show how rich you are. Kind of like the Native American potlatch give away deal.
Yours is pretty standard with nothing real unique about it, so I'd cut it up and do stuff with the pieces. Unless you want a whole wall of your house done in tapa. I've paid between $15-35 for pieces like that, about that size. I'd cut it as needed, though.
After WWII, they added a few motifs of planes and stuff. I'd like a piece of tapa with a P-38 on it. They're out there somewhere... There's also a Hailey's Comet one I'd like to get some day.

Buzzy Out!