Post #737143 by Ragbag Comics on Tue, Feb 10, 2015 10:41 PM

Hi folks-

I recently picked up this very awesome Tiki (I'd say!) via internets...

He's about 52" tall (a bit taller than our Witco God of Fortune) and carved from palm. He came from a seller who said he got it a few weeks back at an estate sale in Columbus, OH that was held in a warehouse. The person HE bought it from claimed it dates back to the 50's or 60's (but ain't that always the way?)

So... obviously, my thought is "Columbus... hmmm... part of the great Kahiki diaspora?"

So here's his glamour shots:

Clearly, Columbus is a big place, and he really coulda come from anywhere, but in 10+ years of collecting, I've never seen one like 'im, and the style is unlike any carver I'm familiar with, but the stylized look does feel kinda 60's. There IS a signature on the back:

Looks like it says "KLAEB"...??

The top of his head is hollowed out in a bowl shape...

...and there's a slit in his back connected to it...

I was thinking maybe it had been a fountain, but there's no connection from the hole in the back to his mouth, or water damage on the tongue.
So it got me to wondering what the hell that slot could possibly be for! Then, after a few drinks and 36 pages of the official Kahiki
thread on TC, I found THESE pictures Tikiship posted last year:

...where the man said:

"Here is a tiki from the last auction of Kahiki stuff.
These tiki had a hollow center and a large hole at the top.
This is how I think those tiki were at one time with a float on the top.
We may never know but this is one of the tiki I wanted from the sale but never bid. "

HMMM.... could this guy have been a lamp at Kahiki? That would be totally insane and awesome.

The carving strikes me as WAY too good and consistent throughout the sculpture to be a tossed off hobbyist piece (and if it is, I hope the carver
kept working and made more pieces...)

Unless the slot in the back was put there because this was in somebody's yard and they wanted to drain the water out (though... there's not
really any water damage, and a hole would be easier to drill than carving a slot) or there's a piece missing that makes it obvious
("Oh! A bird feeder!"), a light kinda makes sense, even though his body isn't hollowed out, as Tikiskip mentions.

Regardless...I absolutely love it. Having some history would just make it that much cooler.

Just look at that face! How can you not like that face?

Thoughts? Input? Skip? Where are ya Skip?

--Pete