Post #716760 by Tattoo on Mon, May 12, 2014 4:24 PM

Didn't quite know where to put this but this seemed to be the most relevant. As I've posted earlier, I was lucky enough to have found this early Tiki Bowl made for Trader Vic's San Francisco by Dickman Walker.

According to the folks at Trader Vic's, this bowl was made for the Trader Vic's San Francisco location which opened in 1951. Unfortunately poor Dickman Walker passed away in 1953. I did some additional research on Dickman Walker and was rather surprised that he was a highly regarded pottery artist of his time. I stumbled upon an article from a 1949 House & Garden magazine entitled "Only in the U.S.A." calling out such mid-century designers as Noguchi, Knoll, and under San Franciscan craftsman - Dickman Walker.

And now we have an actual picture of the man who made the first tiki bowl!

“A Californian by adoption who studied and worked in
Chicago, New York and Houston before coming to the
West Coast. He and his San Francisco studio are dedi-
cated to a sensitive use of clay and glaze. At Gump’s”

I doubt he had ever thought that his "sensitive use of clay and glaze" legacy would be a Tiki bowl that has been copied and reproduced all over the world 60 years straight.

[ Edited by: tattoo 2014-05-12 21:55 ]