Small piece of tapa cloth accompanied by a handwritten note of provenance: 'A piece of tappa cloth from Pitcairn Island, made by Mainmast Christian, the wife of Fletcher Christian mate & mutineer of the 'Bounty' in 1790. The colony of mutineers who settled at Pitcairn Island were taken under the protection of England in 1839. This piece of cloth was brought home from there by an officer Richard Thompson Esqre. R.N. Master of H.M.S. Imogene on the 9th December 1836. Lord Byron in 'The Island' has made the mutiny the basis of a tale, but the facts are much distorted I.A.M.' [?]

Thompson was appointed master of HMS Imogene on 7 June 1836. The ship was sent to South America later that year and visited Pitcairn on 12 January 1837 - see 'Pitcairn Island Register Book' (SPCK, 1929) p. 102.

When contact was established with the outside world, the inhabitants of Pitcairn were wearing Polynesian-style clothing made from the bark of the paper mulbery tree, which grew on the island.