Two Old Tiki Carvings, Any History?

I have these two old Tikis and was wondering if anyone could provide some history.

The first came out of a Polynesian Retaurant in San Pedro (the name escapes me). I bought it from a gentleman who's wife was a Polynesian dancer at the place and took it home when they closed. I suspect it may be a Milan Guanko, but I'm not sure. It's nearly 7 feet tall.

The second one I bought at an estate sale in Anaheim. It's about 4 feet tall. It's real fiberous, and I was told from a pretty reliable source that it carved from some sort of fern, though that could be debated.

Any help would be appreciated.

Tiki 1

Tiki 2

Yes, the second carving is carved from Fernwood. I've seen several carvings from that material, and I've seen a rotting stump my parents had from a dead tree fern in their backyard, it's the same stuff.

Hey Tiki Matt - the first tiki is worthless please ship it to me ASAP and I will dispose of it properly! Wow! I don't know who did it but man is that nice!!!

On 2005-03-29 20:50, johntiki wrote:
Hey Tiki Matt - the first tiki is worthless please ship it to me ASAP and I will dispose of it properly! Wow! I don't know who did it but man is that nice!!!

I'm glad you like it John. I was thinking it was time to trash that damn thing. I still have your address, I'll fed ex it to you tomorrow.

:lol:

You're correct. The second tiki was carved from the trunk of a Hawaiian tree fern. These are extremely rare nowadays because 1) Tree ferns are now protected in Hawaii, so there's no material to carve new tikis, and 2) old tree fern tikis are hard to find because tree fern wood is highly biodegradable. When I was a kid in S. CA, we had one such tiki in the backyard by the pool. It was acquired in the early sixties, and I watched it slowly decompose over the next decade, sadly oblivious to its potential future value. By the latter 70s, it was little more than a mouldering log. I suggest you protect yours from the elements and especially from sowbugs and earwigs, who had a 15 year luau in ours.

The Hawaiiana in Waikiki has quite a few tree fern tikis on their property, it's fun hunting for them by torch light.

There are several fern tikis at the valet area at the Mai Kai.

On 2005-04-06 16:37, Dr_rous wrote:
You're correct. The second tiki was carved from the trunk of a Hawaiian tree fern. These are extremely rare nowadays because 1) Tree ferns are now protected in Hawaii, so there's no material to carve new tikis, and 2) old tree fern tikis are hard to find because tree fern wood is highly biodegradable.

Tiki Matt: Wow - I'm glad you posted the pic of that second tiki. When I was a kid, we had a similar one in our side yard and I have wondered about it. My parents must have purchased it in the mid to late 70s and it was still in great shape when we moved out in the late 80s. The family that bought our house trashed the tiki (along with everything else that required care in the yard) but that's another story.

To expand on what Dr_rous said, the material is also called hapu'u wood. And I've done google searches with permutations of "hapu'u tiki," "hapu'u carving," etc., trying to find anything about them, to no avail.

Any carvers in the Islands know who was making these in the 70s? Or were they probably pretty common at the time? We probably picked it up at the Kam swap meet, LOL.

Tree ferns maybe rare in Hawaii but they have become very popular here as garden plants.
A good freind of mine supplies me with dead stumps when he gets ferns sent over from Tazmania from his Dads farm. Only the very top of the fern is alive so thats the only part they ship to save weight. The rest is perfect for carving, you can even carve the top part so you end up with fern coming from the tikis head.
Here's an example of one of my carvings

[ Edited by: cheekytiki on 2005-04-07 07:45 ]

Here is a pic of my fern. I found her at the Rose Bowl and didn't pay too much for it either!! I keep her inside. She guards the entrance to my bedroom.