Post #373041 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Apr 11, 2008 12:40 AM

To recap, we just established that the lamps at The Outrigger were the same design than the ones Taboo Dan found when he came upon the Tropic Isle hoard:

I agree with Dan in that the crudeness of these figures makes it likely that they were cast after, or even from the ones at the Outrigger:

When I first saw Dan's lamp find, my Tiki senses went off, and I went back into my archive and found some stylistic similarities which combined, point to one origin:

Here are several of Andres Bumatay's Tikis in front of the Sea & Jungle store. Note the similarity in expression of the one in the foreground to the lamp Tiki. But this example is not really conclusive. Now look at this rendering:

It was really the position of the arms and hands that I recognized, not only from this rendering, but from my very own Bumatay carving, that I had rescued from an antique store in the early 90s. It was in a sad state, and I doused it in resin, which worked to prolong its life for several years, until it finally turned to dust:

...now that's our guy!

Mouth and eyes are a little different, but it is a couple of generations down the line. The body posture gives it away. As a side bar I want to share an ingenious carving concept that my specific Bumatay Tiki revealed to me, I call it the "Slice of Pie" Tiki:

Here is a side view of my Bumatay, (with my Buick in the B.G.) showing that its back was made of palm tree bark. This is the revealing feature of this specific carving concept, which needed very thick palm trunks. I crickled up a crude attempt at a blueprint...don't laugh! :) :

This is another great example of how talented carvers took the challenge of an already shaped piece of wood and created a Tiki within the restrictions of that shape! It'll be hard to find palm trunks that size nowadays, but maybe some folks can try it with smaller logs ....the result simply being smaller Tikis. I would love to see this concept resurrected. :)