Post #320789 by TabooDan on Mon, Jul 23, 2007 8:53 PM

Hey Man-From-Tiki, cool find! These are the Tiki's usually carved in the Philippines and probably out of monkey pod wood. They were sold at tourist shops across Hawaii and can be found in all sorts of sizes, shapes and all sorts of different items.

I don't think it dates back to the 1940's as these seem to be available from the 1960's up to the 1980's. I, personaly, have never seen any information or anything dating these pre-1960's.

I have one that stands about 3' tall but the Tiki on the bottom is not nearly as thick as the one pictured. I have seen big ones (the bottom Tiki) like these by themselves.
It's always hard to put prices on these sorts of items but that sounds pretty high to me. It's not a one of a kind and it was a product that was created in large numbers and specifically for the tourist trade. I guess you pay for what you like but I don't think I would pay over $150 for it.

The only thing rare about it is that you don't see this size that often. Actually.....thinking about it, you said it had metal rods holding the pieces together. I would make a bet that they were individual pieces, sold seperatly that somebody had and decided to put the different pieces together. I bet that it never came from the carver that way. I have never seen any of these carvings with metal used in them to stack or for anything else. Just my opinion so I could be wrong.

Anybody else out there????? What yah think???? Later, TabooDan

[ Edited by: TabooDan 2007-07-23 20:55 ]