88 and acquaintances, and they donated to their “museum.” These included George Wilmot Bonner, the wood engraver, and his son; J. J. A. Fillinham, the collector of London antiquities and ephemera, whose collection was sold at auction on his death in 1862; and Thomas Everill, another collector of note. Henry did not marry and upon his death in 1902, he bequeathed the large and varied collection to the local authority, specifying that it should retain the family’s name and that it should be housed in a spacious gallery connected to Newington Library. He also left funds to pay for a curator. It was some years before the terms of the bequest could be satisfi ed, and the newly built and large gallery, situated on top of the Newington Library, was fi nally opened in 1906. The museum sustained damage as the result of a direct hit by an incendiary bomb during the blitz of 1941 and it remained closed until 1959. Although deacquisitions were not permitted under the terms of Henry’s bequest, it appears that during this period a number of the major Polynesian objects disappeared from the collection. Several found their way into the collection of James Hooper, who acquired them from the dealer Ken Webster (fi gs. 24 and 25). Other parts of the collection were given as “permanent loans” to various UK museums and institutions such as the London School of Economics and the Saffron Walden Museum. A great deal of work has been done in recent years by the former curator, Bryn Hyacinth, to recover this loan material and to reunite as much of the collection as possible. FIG. 28 (above): Interior of the Cumings’ home at 63 Kennington Park Road, South London, where they moved after Dean’s Row. Courtesy of the Cuming Museum. FIG. 29 (below): Fragment of tapa cloth with printed leaf pattern. Tahiti. Before 1797. Pounded bark, pigment. Cuming Museum, C3213. Collected by Captain Wilson of the missionary ship Duff.
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