Post #245356 by TabooDan on Thu, Jul 27, 2006 5:36 PM

The old drive in theater that shut down about a year and a half ago was a great place to go dig up goodies on Sundays when they had the flea market. The other local flea market sucks as it is like going to a dollar store! A few months back, another drive in opened up not too far from here. They too are having flea markets on Sundays. I have a manged to pick up a few goodies and love going to this sort of flea market as this is the type when you get the family or relative that is cleaning up the house or garage and pack it all up to get rid of their "trash". All you hunters out there know what I am saying!!

I was racing through the different tables and was trying not to trip over all the stuff that people lay out all over the ground last sunday. It was damn hot here so I was moving quick in this open market. There under a table something bright, colorful and round caught my eye. At the same time my fiancee noticed this item as well and we shared this really distorted look of amazement and excitment. When I realized what it was I had to hold on to my excitment which was pretty damn hard!! There were two, not one, but two Bird of Paridise Bowls by Stephen Crane and Associates just laying there amongst a bunch of crapolla stacked inside one another.

I dont remember walking over to them but maybe kind of like launching across to them and quickly asked "how much are these bird things" trying to hide the thrill in my voice. The man calmly said $2.00. As soon as I started breathing again I gave the man $5.00 and said keep the change. I had to feel a little bit better after robbing him of this bit of Tiki history. He was quite happy about the extra three dollars anyway! I couldnt believe our luck!! I have long admired these bowls from a far and watched them fetch huge amounts of bread on ebay. Its not about how much these are worth out there but the thrill of finding them in the wild and getting a very hard to find vintage piece of history. Paying next to nothing for them is just the icing!

As I looked at the next table, which happened to be the previous sellers Mom selling stuff as well, she said she got those bowls with her husband about thirty years ago at a Kon Tiki Restaurant and they shared a drink in them. Nice little connection to them and probably the best find in the wild that I have had in a long time.

Here are a couple of other things I picked up in the last couple of days:

On the left is a Skull Mug with it's original OMC foil label on the base, a Hapawood Tiki made by HIP dated 1974, a black double sided Tiki glass which I believe are new pieces that are being made now, two small Tiki cufflinks which I will have to thank TikiWahine for as I got fed up looking at all the jewellery in places until I saw some of the cool items that she has picked up on her hunts, second from right a nice old Orchids of Hawaii Fuman Chu mug and on the right a white ceramic Tiki face mug made by Louis B Ceramics, I think of Hawaii, which has the ink stamp on the bottom of a bee waving his arm. The back of this mug is marked Royal Lahaina Resort in Kaanapali Beach, Maui. Overall not too bad. Sure made it worth while as I have been really too busy lately to go on hunts so this has been pretty good! Thanks for looking and happy hunting!! TabooDan