Post #620378 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 7:55 AM

Just to clarify, I am also not saying that I am certain that fountain never stood at the Kapu Kai. Witco was the only company that offered such a variety of large Tiki fountains, so it could have been the only Witco item in there. It still would surprise me though, for the reasons I mentioned above.

And the reasons of how and why who ends up with what after the closure of a Tiki temple are usually mysterious and greatly vary. In the dark times before the Tiki Revival, artifacts more often than not disappeared to the great elephant graveyard of forgotten styles (sort of a clothes dryer sock "black hole") forever. Rarely, single pieces re-surfaced after years. If they were saved at all, sometimes the contractors who got the job to destroy the Polynesian palace kept a few things for their own use, and then got tired of them. And sometimes, if an urban archeologist happened to be at the right place at the right time, dumpster diving and digging behind buildings lead to the saving of relics which would have been lost otherwise. Most often though authentic Tiki temple decor pieces found their way back into the mainstream thru antique store and flea market dealers. In certain areas with rich Tiki tradition, savvy dealers with an ear to the ground started embellishing the perceived value of their items by claiming noble Tiki Temple heritage. Since there was no certitude in this hear-say, the label simply transferred from owner to owner as genuine fact.

The original owners rarely are the ones to keep anything from their businesses, because the loss of the enterprise is usually due to hardship, and they want to move on. The Kapu Kai was turned into a Country and Western themed roller rink after the flood, anything Tiki (other than the Milan Guanko structural Tiki posts between the lanes) must have been taken out by the folks who started the roller rink venture.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2012-01-15 17:09 ]