Any info on this tiki? please? - Collecting Tiki

STCB Sabu The Coconut Boy Tiki Socialite Carson, California Joined: Aug 20, 2002 Posts: 2807	STCB Sabu The Coconut Boy Posted posted on Wed, Jan 27, 2010 12:38 PM Hi Julie, That's a pretty nice tiki. The Hawaiians tend to carve their tikis in the authentic, classical style, based on the very few original tikis to survive from 1800s. Yours looks like it was based on this Kona-style Ku image that currently resides in the British Museum: There's another famous Ku in the Bishop Museum: ... but yours has the more protruding eyes, the rounder head, and the round, knobby braids touching the ground like the British Museum example. Only six original Kona-style Temple Images survived from old religion of Hawaii. The two examples above were copied a lot when tiki-carving was revived in the 1950s and 60s, and copies of the copies followed in great numbers. In the British Museum original, the center braid is a pig's head and the remaining braids also have a small notch or "mouth". It's been suggested that all the braids symbolized pigs heads, which were prized food and sacrificial items. It was thought that the braids represented an multitude of pigs sacrificed on the altar to the god during the dedication ceremony of the temple, symbolizing the god's "infinite" power. Based on the dark color of your carving, the dust in the cracks, and the large penis (which I think is less pc today), I would tend to agree that yours looks like a vintage piece from 40 or 50 years ago - but there are other experts here who are better at guessing than me. Did you get any history with the piece? How tall exactly is he? If he's standing on a table, then I'd say he was probably a tourist piece carved back in the day. If he's standing on the ground, then I'd say he's a bigger piece from a restaurant or bar. The original Hawaiian carvings often had genitalia, but never that large. That was some artistic license taken by the carvers in the '60s - probably for a little shock value and to make the piece a little more naughty and exotic. That appealed to tourists back in the day and was considered acceptable - just like owning a velvet painting of a naked island girl. A lot of these penises were chopped off in later decades when it was decided they were too obscene. If your piece is indeed vintage, than he's lucky to still have his manhood intact. A lot of good information can be found by hunting through the chapters on this website: http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/kona/historyt.htm And if you can find a used copy of "Hawaiian Sculpture" by Cox & Davenport, that's also a good source. [ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2010-01-27 15:06 ]

Hi Julie,

That's a pretty nice tiki. The Hawaiians tend to carve their tikis in the authentic, classical style, based on the very few original tikis to survive from 1800s. Yours looks like it was based on this Kona-style Ku image that currently resides in the British Museum:

There's another famous Ku in the Bishop Museum:

... but yours has the more protruding eyes, the rounder head, and the round, knobby braids touching the ground like the British Museum example. Only six original Kona-style Temple Images survived from old religion of Hawaii. The two examples above were copied a lot when tiki-carving was revived in the 1950s and 60s, and copies of the copies followed in great numbers. In the British Museum original, the center braid is a pig's head and the remaining braids also have a small notch or "mouth". It's been suggested that all the braids symbolized pigs heads, which were prized food and sacrificial items. It was thought that the braids represented an multitude of pigs sacrificed on the altar to the god during the dedication ceremony of the temple, symbolizing the god's "infinite" power.

Based on the dark color of your carving, the dust in the cracks, and the large penis (which I think is less pc today), I would tend to agree that yours looks like a vintage piece from 40 or 50 years ago - but there are other experts here who are better at guessing than me.

Did you get any history with the piece? How tall exactly is he? If he's standing on a table, then I'd say he was probably a tourist piece carved back in the day. If he's standing on the ground, then I'd say he's a bigger piece from a restaurant or bar.

The original Hawaiian carvings often had genitalia, but never that large. That was some artistic license taken by the carvers in the '60s - probably for a little shock value and to make the piece a little more naughty and exotic. That appealed to tourists back in the day and was considered acceptable - just like owning a velvet painting of a naked island girl.

A lot of these penises were chopped off in later decades when it was decided they were too obscene. If your piece is indeed vintage, than he's lucky to still have his manhood intact.

A lot of good information can be found by hunting through the chapters on this website:
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/kona/historyt.htm

And if you can find a used copy of "Hawaiian Sculpture" by Cox & Davenport, that's also a good source.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2010-01-27 15:06 ]

Post #507387 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Wed, Jan 27, 2010 12:38 PM