Post #691238 by Ragbag Comics on Sat, Aug 24, 2013 10:25 AM

I am amazed at the polarizing effects of Witco... some of it I absolutely adore. Yes, there's the "rugged, rough-hewn charm" factor, and the fact that some of the designs are just flat-out WILD. Tacky? Probably, to most folks... but it's a reflection of the time period in came from.

Tiki and Exotica was not about exacting reproductions or accuracy... it was about creating a general feeling of "other-ness," which was coupled with an over-arching obliviousness about other cultures. It was all about atmosphere... Witco has buckets of atmosphere. Seeing it in a book or on a computer screen doesn't do it justice at all... there's a great deal of heft to these pieces and they have a presence when experienced in person unlike anything else.

In this era of pre-fabricated beige and bland, non-threatening "tasteful" decorating, I love the fact that, once upon a time, you could go to a JC Penney's and BUY a llama bar or a Mainlander fountain and that was not seen as a particularly odd thing (I admit, the Witco bug has bitten so strong I actually had a DREAM once about walking into a small-town forgotten Sears store that still had Witco for sale...oof.)

Some of my personal affection for the stuff comes, too, from the fact that it is such a dominant feature in the classic places left here in Chicago; I will never forget the first time we walked into Hala Kahiki in River Grove and just being completely bowled over with all this wild and wonderful stuff (it wasn't 'til Sven's book that we really knew EXACTLY what the story was with it...) I still kinda feel that way every time we go there, no matter how frequently we head out that way and settle into our chairs (and our CUPS...)

However... the conquistadors, the carousel animals, the wooden soldiers, the SUPER 70's mod stuff... not my thing. Even a lot of the furniture, I'm not wild about (though, the bars are a different story..)

It's funny how just a subtle shift here and there can make a person love something or detest it.

For me, with the Witco I love vs. the Witco I don't, it is entirely the aesthetics of a certain time period; I love mid-60's design style... the mid-to-late 60's Witco is like the Tiki equivalent of jazz or Modernist cartoons. By the early to mid 70's, with the super mod "flower power" kind of stuff, I absolutely detest it (and so did a lot of other people, apparently, as that's about when they closed.)

To each their own.. I feel like our Witco works perfectly in our home, though at 20 pieces of it in a 1400sf home, we're likely reaching critical mass.

We still had room for this guy, tho... and we'd been wanting him for a long dang time!