Post #719282 by Tattoo on Wed, Jun 4, 2014 9:47 PM

After some proper nudging from the Tiki gods on Tiki central… here, under one thatched hut, is a gathering place for all Tiki bowls. An attempt to give a little history and chronology of the Tiki bowl with the hopes that TC members correct me and fill in the blanks...

As the tropical bar embraced its more dignified pagan roots and became the Tiki establishments we all love today, a proper drinking vessel was needed. The first and most obvious step was to embellish on the ceremonial Kava bowl. Not to drink virgin blood, but to serve tropical libations.

A traditional Kava Bowl.

And when looking at the Hawaiian Menehune bowl, we can see the inspiration of small Tiki like figures holding a bowl.

Around 1950 Victor Bergeron added the Tiki Bowl to his menu for which he needed, well, a Tiki bowl.

Early 50s San Francisco/Oakland menu featuring the Tiki Bowl for $1.50. The asterisk denotes that it’s a Trader Vic’s original… god forbid you ever say different!

When Trader Vic opened his San Francisco location in 1951, he hired respected potter Dickman Walker (1907-1953) to create a new bowl for his new original drink.

The round bowl was hand thrown and held up by three miniature Marquesan tikis. It’s marked “made for Trader Vic by Dickman Walker” and we can safely date this bowl between 1951 and 1953 making it the earliest (first?) documented Tiki bowl.

This classic Tiki bowl design has since been a mainstay of nearly every Tiki establishment to this day. The variations are surprisingly minor - usually just the type of Tikis holding up the bowl. It should be noted though that with almost all later Tiki bowls, the bowl is triangular and not round.

A drink card from Trader Vic’s The Outrigger in Seattle (with the more triangular bowl). The Outrigger was built circa 1949-1950. Given the $1.50 price, it seems the Tiki bowl was widely used by all Trader Vic locations already in the early 1950s. But which version?

I have seen only two other variations that are marked Trader Vic. One simply marked “Designed and made Exclusively for Trader Vic”

And one made in Japan marked “MADE EXCLUSIVELY FOR TRADER VIC’S ©1963.”

Then there is also the blue Tepco version.

Given the known association Tepco had with Trader Vic, it is likely that the blue Tepco Tiki bowls were used at Trader Vic’s. With the copyrighted 1963 bowl, one can only guess which bowl was used at Trader Vic’s from from 1953 to 1963.

Here’s another variation of the Blue Tepco version but for the Bali Ha’i at the beach in New Orleans.

I presume this is Tepco but not sure.

Here’s an all black variation.

Unmarked and unknown maker but with a made in Japan sticker. Probably Otagiri.

And then we have all the Orchids of Hawaii versions…

Which degenerated into the Dynasty version :(

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I guess…

Soon after the introduction of the Tiki bowl by Trader Vic, other restaurants created their own version. Probably because they feared being called a 'dirty stinker', the tiki bowl became the designated bowl to serve a Scorpion in - and thus the Scorpion Bowl. The Los Angeles Islander in the late 50s hired Spurlin Ceramics to make all their drink ware. For the Scorpion bowl, Spurlin created a triangular bowl held up by three Tikis. However this time the Tikis take on the Hawaiian Ku form.

The Ku version of the Tiki bowl was more or less copied by Otagiri (who copied almost all of the Spurlin line).

This OMC version of the KU Tiki bowl is quite common and was widely used including, ironically, the Stockton Islander. One variation traveled across the Atlantic and found itself in Spain used at the House of Ming, Madrid.

An obvious copy of the OMC version.

And here is a different Ku version by Louis B Ceramics of Hawaii

I’ve seen many varieties of this bowl including ones by LaTour and Gecko’z. Does anyone know which is the earliest version of this bowl?

In the 60s, Steve Crane’s luau was not to be outdone. So when he created a Tiki Bowl, he made undoubtedly the most lavish one. Three highly detailed Marquesan tikis’ holding a full colored and painted triangular bowl.

Here’s an unmarked Tiki bowl that actually uses the Steve Crane luau salt and pepper Tiki's with the thumbs-up gesture as the basis for the Tikis.

I doubt this was ever used at any of the Steve Crane locations. Anybody know where it was used?

And here’s another beautiful Tiki bowl made in Hawaii by Terra Ceramics for the Kahala Hilton. Again, clearly derived from the Trader Vic version with three Marquesan Tikis holding the bowl.

And then there is this amazing Maori based Tiki bowl.

I believe this was used at Sam’s Seafood and made by Spurlin. Need some help on this one…

And last but not least, we have the Kahiki with their own gigantic tiki bowl. So big it needed 4 tikis to hold the damn thing up.

I don’t believe one has ever been found… To many the holy grail of Tiki mugs & bowls.

The incredible Mai Kai version of the mystery drink did away with the Ku Tiki and replaced it with a .. well… more handsome and muscular island man (for the ladies I presume).

This is the original super rare version made by Harper of Florida which is amazing.

A later and slightly more colorful version was made by Otagiri.

There are actually a couple bowls that more closely resemble the traditional Kava and Menehune bowls

From the Polynesian in Torrance that actually used the more traditional Kava bowl design. Note the added Tiki faces on the side. Does anyone actually have one of these??? Never seen a real one. Not sure about the date either but looking at the process it must be from the early to mid-50s I would guess.

And a Tiki bowl directly based on the “menehune” bowl.

This bowl was used at Trader Nick’s, Pismo as seen in the above postcard. Although Tiki figures holding the bowl are the Don The Beachcomber Salt and Peppers shakers.

Well, this seems like a good start. i know there’s a lot of Tiki bowls I missed and haven’t covered so please add more bowls, more variations, more menu scans and any info you got!