Post #674115 by Bay Park Buzzy on Thu, Apr 11, 2013 3:46 PM

On 2013-04-11 14:16, bigbrotiki wrote:
These are sooooo rare. I don't think OA ever made these, but then who did?

I've had this theory swimming in my head after I checked out Kate's tikis and was wondering about the 1923 date on them. Because, it seemed real early for tourist pieces, (which these obviously were) when most other islands' prevalent and recognizable tourist/trade produced examples seem to have come after World War II(except maybe Maori?)...
I figure Gauguin was in Tahiti in 1891, which would have put the isles into the European consciousness from thereabouts until the turn of the century. Interest would spawn adventures and cruises to those lands, thus bringing in a tourist based carving economy as a result. 20 years down the line, Kate's tikis are made, and then a long decade later, Don's looks for fixtures in the new place and spies(or even has) these cool lamps from Tahiti(If these were ever in a Don's-I'm just using this as hypothetical because it would fit in the timeline...)
Tahiti wasn't exactly isolated from Hawaii, as far as trade and interaction were concerned. So thirty years of Tahiti producing tourist grade pieces would have given plenty of time for examples of that piece to get around. How many cruises could haven gone to Tahiti, and then Hawaii, to the mainland(and Europe) and back again in those 30 years? And how many Cannibal pieces were carved, bought, and produced in that time? Hundreds, if not thousands? Those large Cannibal lamps were probably the high end big spender souvineer you bought for yourself , and Kate's trio were probably like buying a $5 ironwood Mexican marlin carving in Puerta Vallerta now for your friends back home when you go on a cruise. Maybe more would surface if people actually knew what they were? Most were probably, broken, painted, and thrown away by now. Given the small sampling of people who would actually know that motif today, odds are low that one of those few would ever actually run into one. Looks like in the tiki world, maybe a dozen or so of those folks were at the right place at the right time and have one or the old set. I saw one on the shelf of a used bookstore a few years back. Guy didn;t know what it was, but had it so long he wouldn't sell it. It's kind of a vague concept without the background of the trio or being familar with Tahitian culture. One of the trio alone is almost meaningless. Thus, they languish as old and unknown wooden oddities in barns and attics across the continents.

So my final hypothesis is: That they were the earliest examples of Tahiti's locally produced, whimsical tourist oriented pieces based on original Polynesian motifs and themes. The true first wave of the PolyPop carver.

I now present this hypothesis for peer review and debate.

Thank you for your time.
Buzzy Out!