Post #141383 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Tue, Feb 15, 2005 5:38 PM

I'm afraid that based on my extensive postcard and photo collection, "Caribbean" decor never had and never will have a place in Tiki interiors.

However, we've been forgetting a perfectly valid form of decor that has always been synonomous with Tiki and that is often neglected when it comes to decorating your tiki bar. That style, of course, is "Conquistador".

Take for instance, this stunning Conquistador painting that I purchased at an Estate Sale this weekend for two dollars:

Checking through my postcard collection, I find that the same (or very similar) Spaniard can be clearly seen on the wall of the Trader Vic's of the Statler Hilton in Washington D.C. during the mid-1960s.

Victor Bergeron must have obtained the painting as a present from John F. Kennedy. We know this because JFK was a known friend of Vic's and the same painting can be seen in several shots of Kennedy's office, including this one that made it to the November 1960 cover of Time magazine:

The painting's installment at Trader Vic's must have been relatively short because a few years later, it was somehow obtained by Hugh Hefner who evidently prized it greatly - after all, it appeared prominently inside and on at least one cover of Playboy magazine in the early 1970s.

I guess all I'm trying to say here is don't forget the conquistador paintings, lamps, and spanish furniture when you're decorating your tiki bar. When Sven's book "Conquistador: Quixotic Modernism" is published in 2007, the value of these pieces is only going to skyrocket.

Sabu

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy on 2005-02-15 17:39 ]