Cutting decorative paperwork for ‘HMS Clarkson’

Lanterns were traditionally covered with intricately cut decorative paperwork (known as takada). Candlelight, or in later years light from tiny electric bulbs, would shine through the latticework thus creating the effect of a lantern. The man in this photograph has drawn a design in pencil on the top piece of a wad of paper and is cutting it out by hand through the whole wad using a sharp nail. This will result in multiple paper sheets with an identical design. Repeated many times, enough decorative paperwork will be produced to cover King Tom Lantern Club’s ship lantern ‘HMS Clarkson’, named after John Clarkson, the first Governor of the newly established settlement of Freetown in 1792.