Post #576506 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Feb 17, 2011 2:20 AM

Aaaah, luckily someone (in this case my old friend and Marquesas travel companion Martin McIntosh) clipped the pics from the auction:

A menu cut out in the shape of the establishment's logo Tiki is very special already, but this one is definitely in the top ten, if not THE most desirable piece of Tiki culture paper ephemera!

Great concepts and illustrations. Some of the vessels, like the Tiki Bowl, might never have been realized. Another curious fact is that the unique Headhunter mug is not depicted. It might be that it was not made yet, or that it was too gory of an image to be on a menu. Seeing this illustration in place of it...

...makes me amend my theory that the idea for this seminal mug was solely inspired by Ren Clark's guillotine act he performed in his magic show. The rendering here seems to be taken from the wooden Igorot statues that were used as decor in some Tiki temples, like this one:

...or the one that stood at The Islands San Diego, depicted on page 16 of Tiki Modern. I have a smaller version I bought from Basement Kahuna at home (lower left corner):

These were not that uncommon and it is quite possible a version was owned by Ren Clark. Man I wish there would be a chance to hear the true story of the conception - and the reception - of that mug.

Here the other details clipped from the auction....not necessarily showing the highlights of the menu:

Now WHO got that menu? Biffcoz would a good home considering he owns such important Ren Clark artifacts already.