This rare and exotic publication of original Pacific artefacts is the most remarkable of the whole Cook canon: with a brief but significant letterpress introduction it mainly consists of actual specimens of eighteenth-century tapa cloth collected in the Pacific islands, particularly Hawaii, Tahiti and Tonga.

This rare and exotic publication of original Pacific artefacts is the most remarkable of the whole Cook canon: with a brief but significant letterpress introduction it mainly consists of actual specimens of eighteenth-century tapa cloth collected in the Pacific islands, particularly Hawaii, Tahiti and Tonga.

In modern times the publication has become one of the great rarities of eighteenth-century Pacific exploration. This is an example of the first issue of the book with the strictly contemporary bookplate of Sir Corbet D'Avenant (1752-1823), Baronet of Stoke and Adderley. Donald Kerrr speculates, in his census, that D'Avenant was likely an original subscriber on first publication.

Published only a few years after the return of the ships from Cook's third voyage, it is not recorded how many of the cloth-books were prepared and, up until the recent detective work of Erica Ryan at the NLA, very little was known about the publisher Alexander Shaw either. However, the limited supplies of the actual cloth must have dictated a very small edition – the most recent census of known copies by Donald Kerr stood at the tiny figure of 66 (recently revised by us to 68), of which 57 were held by international libraries. This count, of course, includes the later issues of the book which continued to be sold, often with dramatically varying contents, as late as 1806.

There has in effect never been a standard collation of the book – the fascinating dedication, addressed to an unnamed "Sir", is genuinely vague on numbers – not least because it is obvious that Shaw was simultaneously selling individual samples and "fine specimens of the tree, with the bark" at his shop in the Strand.

Indeed, as Forbes shows in some detail in the Hawaiian National Biography, and others including Ian Morrison, Maryanne Larkin, Erica Ryan and Donald Kerr have all confirmed in more detail, no two copies of the work are identical, meaning that a precise collation is needed every time. Thus, while 39 different samples are listed in Shaw's introductory list (and "40" are mentioned at another point in the dedication), many copies have quite different collations, not least because the Jamaican sample, (perhaps the most surprising addition) was apparently dropped in the course of publication.

In short, the present example has a total of 36 separate samples, including particularly fine full-page examples of many of the more famous sheets. Almost none of the sheets have been particularly affected by the late-Georgian and Victorian practice of clipping: it is well-known that many collectors constructed what have become known as 'snippet books' of the Cook tapa cloths, by cutting pieces from copies of Shaw's volume and pasting them into separate books or albums.

As a result of this clipping habit, copies of the original Shaw book survive in various states of completeness, sometimes with only very small fragments of the once full-page specimens remaining. In this copy, with its original blank leaves in place, it is quite clear that the specimens have essentially retained their original shape, with only four or perhaps five showing evidence of very minor clipping (as can be shown from the ancient offsetting onto the adjoining blanks).

The production of this book reflects the genuine curiosity aroused by tapa, a fascination that drove competition between collectors of 'artificial curiosities' and generated an active market for the sheets brought home by Cook's men. The preface of the book contains descriptions of bark cloth manufacture by Cook, Anderson, Forster and an anonymous officer titled 'one of the navigators', and is followed by the list of the specimens compiled by Shaw. The list is indeed rich in fascinating details; for example, we learn that the various uses of the tapa: 'wore (sic) by the people in the rainy season' or 'used at the human sacrifice'. Some of the notes in the list are longer, and doubtless arise from tales told by the mariners who collected the tapa in the first place (as boasted on the title page).

Each island group used designs unique to its culture and the interest of Europeans in this material equalled the passion aroused by the extraordinary wood-carvings and exotic shells brought back by Cook.

The Shaw Catalogue is of great significance as a repository of unique original tapa, but it also speaks of the time when Cook's sailors were spreading their stories of the alluring South Seas, while drawing-room chatter throughout the land luxuriated in descriptions of the new exotic. The publication forms a tangible link between these narratives, the indigenous cultures of the South Pacific and Hawaiian islands, the myriad personal and trading relationships that developed between the islanders and mariners, and the genteel world of gentleman collectors and their cabinets of curiosities.