eBay: Very large Tapa cloth -- could be a real bargain

Monster size vintage Tapa on ebay, 30' x 16'. At its current price, its only .62 a square foot... a real bargain!

This would be way more than enough to wallpaper a room. Get that truly authentic look going in your home lounge!

I'm always asked where I got enough of the same Tapa to wallpaper the Spectacular East Indies Room, and this is the answer!

Not my auction, BTW

[ Edited by: Traderpup on 2004-03-04 22:28 ]

Traderpup wrote:
...At its current price, its only .62 a square foot... a real bargain!..Get that truly authentic look going in your home lounge!..

Yes, that is a deal per square foot, and yes, it would be a truly authentic look, especially with...um....airplanes?

Well if your tiki room had a cargo cult theme then the airplanes would be fitting.

The impact of WWII in the Pacific Islands resulted in tremendous influence on island culture. So its not uncommon to see elements of that in their artwork from that era.

We seem to have an understanding of sailors returning home, and wanting to recapture the splendor of the South Pacific, resulting in a boom in Polynesian Pop in Western culture. But our presence in the Pacific had a similar effect there.

So, this Tapa could be dated 20-30 yrs older than the seller even has listed!

It was probably done by an elder who saw the plane on it's way to destroy the island, Bikini!! If true, that tapa is well worth the price.

Why not airplanes, the people have been seeing them fly by since 1940 it makes the cloth more authentic. They probably have had a huge impact on the artist.

I know someone who bought an expensive rug from Afganistan about 20 years ago, if you look closely at the design you can pick out AK-47 rifles amoung the traditional design elements. Turns out the rug was made around the time of the occupation by the Soviet Union, the weavers reflected this in the rug that they made.

[ Edited by: captnkirk on 2004-03-06 21:15 ]