Later, some copies had additional cloth specimens added, probably in response to new supplies of tapa that became available, likely from the sale of the collections of Sir Ashton Lever and David Samwell (the latter surgeon's mate of the Discovery during the third voyage, and author of the equally rare Narrative of the Death of Captain James Cook, published a year before this). This very desirable expanded example includes 17 additional cloth samples, bringing the total to 56 specimens, and may have been prepared in 1805-1806 (on the basis of dated watermarks of some blank leaves). Most significantly, the majority of these additional specimens were collected by Cook's men and officers in Hawaii. There were relatively few Hawaiian specimens in the copies first issued which were limited to 39 specimens.

Unsurprisingly, Shaw's Catalogue has been the subject of intense scholarly focus for many decades, including a comprehensive world-wide survey of all remaining copies by Dr. Donald Kerr of the University of Otago. Dr. Kerr has identified 66 examples in his census, of which 57 are held by libraries and institutions, six are in private possession, and three whose whereabouts are not known at present. To this total can be added the copy recently included in the Brooke-Hitching sale and the present example, bringing the total to 68. Research by a London-based colleague has so far revealed that eight copies, including this one, are examples of the expanded issue (while it is known that this is the rarest state of this book, further investigation is required to finalise the total).

However, as tapa from different sheets was dissected to make up the books, no two copies of the work are identical (as demonstrated by David Forbes in the Hawaiian National Biography). Furthermore, the craze for 'artificial curiosities' from the Pacific during the late-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries seems to have inspired a sort of drawing-room activity where sections were cut from the tapa specimens and the small cuttings rearranged in what are often called 'snippet books', probably to share with friends. As a result of these samplings, many copies are incomplete or include specimens that have been heavily clipped. The present example is unscathed and contains large generous tapa samples - indeed some 15 of them measure a full or three-quarter page. Significantly, the offsetting from the tapa to the interleaved sheets shows that this copy is in entirely original condition, and has not been modified or tampered with in the two centuries since its production. As such, not only is this the most desirable issue with the additional Hawaiian specimens, but it is unusually complete, unmolested and well preserved, and bound in the marbled paper boards as originally sold from the residence of Alexander Shaw in the Strand.--Hordern House website, retrieved July 2020.