Could someone please tell me about this tiki god?

Hey ther, This was carved in the early 50s, but it looks both modern and alien to me. Anyone know the story??
Robert

That's the evil, football-headed, "C'mere babe, lemme feel yer..." Lotus seat Tiki. Very...UNIQUE!

No really, that's what I would say it is: A total freeform not-based-on-any-island-style effigy. It does look alien, or Power Rangers, maybe?

it came out of the NYC Plaza Hotel Trader Vic's.

It is old, but looks so darn tootin' modern.

You should see the sleestack looking ones I got too.
Robert

Oh, please share pictures of those! What's a "sleestack"?

Usually, early Trader Vic's (up to the 60s) were outfitted with Barney West Tikis, but I doubt this is one. The New York T.V.'s moved its location from the Savoy Hilton to the Plaza at some point.

The way the body, hands and teeth are more organic and naturalistic than "primitive", I would say it's a nouveaux "Poly-Asian" Tiki, but T.V.'s did not begin employing those until recently...

..it's a los straight jackets, eddie angel tiki ......you can tell by the carved mexican wrestler mask he is wearing...LOL

Oh, please share pictures of those! What's a "sleestack"?

Sleestacks were evil lizard-like creatures from Sid&Marty Krofft's "Land of the Lost" (1974-77)

BTW, cool tiki--how were you able to acquire? Maybe 'nunnamybizness'? Yes, show more pics---of all your stuff, please!!!!

Thanks for sharing,
Brad

I gave HumuHumu a scoop, so you will have to read all about it there.
Robert

On 2006-11-06 08:31, Robertiki wrote:
I gave HumuHumu a scoop, so you will have to read all about it there.
Robert

And it's a doozy of a tale!

This tiki has seven big brothers -- a total of eight massive tikis, from the New York Trader Vic's:

New York Trader Vic’s Tikis Headed to Portland

[ Edited by: Humuhumu 2006-11-06 08:49 ]

HOLY SH%Z#$K%^&%D$%T$%^!!!!

Nice score! great story too. Good thing you made that auction detour in the scooter race!

BTW, the one in center (in orange shirt) DOES look like a sleestack! :wink: :lol:

I can't wait to see the place on next trip to Portland.
Thanks for sharing,
Brad

Awesome story!!!

My friends...I certainly don't wanna rain on your parade, but after seeing the whole gang, I am willing to bet my sorry German butt on the fact that, as hinted above, these puppies are with 99.8 % certainty NEW "Poly-Asian" carvings, supplied by that Tropical Imports place in Oakland (name escapes me) that Trader Vic's began using in the 2000s.

Humuhumu wrote:

.... two of the tikis are the same design as the Trader Vic’s salt & pepper shakers, and have “TRADER VIC’S” carved in the back of them — which anyone can do, but the carving doesn’t look fresh. For another, the tikis look somewhat consistent with (though larger than) some tikis Trader Vic’s still has in their possession, as seen when they loaned them out for the San Francisco Airport tiki exhibit....

Actually, Doug Nason was the first to do this (as can be seen in his Tiki book): He had experienced but cheap carvers in the Philippines/ Bali (?) carve Tikis from mugs and other vintage graphic sources. They come out okay, but always a little "off": Bodies too naturalistic, heads not oversize enough, etc.

Nobody has actually told me this, but it makes economic sense that when the BOT and the Tiki Revival brought a revived interest in Trader Vic franchises, the T.V.'s management compared prices between the classic Oceanic Arts Tikis and the cheaper imports from Asia and saw no big difference in the quality, after all, the Poly-Asian ones ARE carved from fine tropical woods. And so the new franchises like the one in the Berlin Hilton, and even the OLD places like Emeryville, were infiltrated by these non-American made Tikis (what an outrage! :))

My guess is that these specific ones were prematurely bought/shipped to New York when T.V.'s was in negotiations for opening a new place there, but then these talks broke down, and these babies were stranded.

All this is shear deduction, based on my keen Tiki eye, and putting two and two together: When I wrote the Book of Tiki, nobody told me if a Tiki was done by Barney West or Milan Guanko (Correction!: Leroy surely put me on the path for that), but I developed an eye for individual carving styles purely base on the volume of Tikis seen in the years of my research. And this Tiki eye tells me these are the nouveaux Poly-Asian kind, (just like some at the SF airport exhibit are!).

I am not saying that that is a horrible thing...it simply is a part of the history of the Tiki revival now, if you/I like it or not. And it's here to stay, because it is an affordable alternative for some. I think for a new Tiki Bar, they are a good asset, and 99.9 % of the customers won't be able to tell the difference.

Thanks for the background, Sven! Your explanation does make a lot of sense. While it's kinda conceivable that tikis from the NYC Trader Vic's went into a local warehouse, instead of being sent back to the Emeryville warehouse, I wasn't aware that an attempt had been made to get another TV open, and that idea holds a lot of water, too. Re: the style -- I do trust your eye for the provenance of tikis, but Trader Vic's has often gone their own way, while the other chains tended to use common resources a bit more. Do you think it's possible that these were ordered out of Asia in the '60s?

I have seen these on Ebay for years. I don't know where they come from, but I recognize the style. These are new as Sven says. I don't watch Ebay like I used to. My searches are very specific now. But maybe 3 years ago you saw this style on there continually. They were usually in bunches. You'd get one picture of 4-5 of them and each auction would be "for the 2nd from the left, etc." Not any carvers work around here. No background. They were fresh off some boat. What Bigbro says sounds right. I never really looked into them and never really liked the style. Too rounded off. Mud tikis.

Not to burst a bubble. Probably a good price for them, but the moment I saw that little guy I knew it was one of those same ones. They might be a few years old, might be newer.

On 2006-11-06 11:53, Humuhumu wrote: Do you think it's possible that these were ordered out of Asia in the '60s?

Frankly, no. If I compare them to the Tikis at the London, Munich, or Atlanta T.V.'s locations, all built in the 1970s, they don't look anything like it. I have to correct my earlier statement about the Barney West Tikis only being em/deployed til the 60s:

Now that I think about it, all of the above locations, and even the Hamburg one, built in the late 80s, have some Barney West Tikis in them. I am talking about the freestanding ones, not the Tiki posts and railings. At that point, Trader Vic's was still storing their decor from closed locations, re-using it in newly opened places, shipping whole containers of it over the Atlantic.

When, in the course of my BOT research, in the mid-90s I got to see the old Trader Vic's warehouse in Oakland (since then closed, NOT the same as the above mentioned importer, who now does have some of the old Tiki columns), I was very disappointed:

NO large Tikis were left at all! Somehow, for some reason, it seems that beginning in the 90s, when franchises like Portland and Washington DC closed, T.V.'s did not bother about restocking their decor and just let it go.

So with the slew of new locations opening in this decade, they had to come up with an economic solution, it's a business after all. The Trader would have agreed, he was sort of the Walt Disney of Tiki, a visionary businessman. Problem nowadays is, there are only businessmen left, the visionary part fell by the wayside somehow.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2006-11-06 12:22 ]

Well, there you go. A bit too good to be true, after all. It would be interesting to know if these have a recent connection to Trader Vic's at least, as you speculated could be, Sven. Perhaps a call to Trader Vic's HQ could shed a bit of light.

I'm very curious about the Tiki on the far left in the group photo.

It looks just like the ones I've purchased at the Christmas Tree Shop (only much bigger)

Is this from an original design? Is it totally new, and who first designed it?

Here is the same tiki at Hale Tiki. Brad bought 4-5 of these off Eaby for about $300 I think. The ones behind the bar look a bit different, but you can see the style.

they have been selling these for years here in chicago.....there's a warehouse on the south side selling all but the short guy with the mask....they are all new tikis, not vintage....i reported on this a long time ago i believe...duke carter also knows of this place -i forget the name, but if i think of it i'll post it....they are expensive,,,about $450 for the trader vic salt shaker replicas....

Brand spanking new. The tikis behind the bar at Haole Sneaky came from the same place. The guy sells the same crew on e-bay over and over. If those came from the Statler Hilton I came from Atlantis.

Here's a recent thread about the exact same tikis that were being sold on eBay. Well, maybe not the same ones Robert bought, but from the same source. Interesting to note that the eBay desciption says "These are from a resturant long ago closed and have dust, scuffs, checks, cracks." But I didn't believe it when I first saw it. They looked new to me and just a little "off". They don't have the appearance of being made from the chisel of an experienced carver who knows his tiki. More like they were manufactured from a pre-set template.

Gosh....

I fell like crap now.
Robert

Well, don't feel too bad. A couple are cool enough to use inside. What about maybe using some outside with some strategically placed plants covering the bodies. I think if I saw these with mostly their faces peering out of the plantscape, they'd still be pretty sweet.

I agree, Robert, don't fret. You have scored once already with the Jasmine Tree relics, those artifacts are the real thing! And these you said you paid very little for, so for your money, I do think they can ad to the general atmosphere of your place, if displayed prudently.

Well, I think the ones bought for Hale Tiki for $300 were bought as a mistake. They should have been $300 each and the seller goofed and sold them all for that amount and honored the sale anyway. That gives you some idea of the going rate on these. $300 a piece. So, hopefully you got a good deal. Maybe not the deal you thought you were getting, but a good one none the less.

We were told they were mahogany. If they were mine, I'd make a test cut on the back somewhere and see what the wood is like and maybe get a carver to add some nicer cuts on them. Make them look a bit more frsh and less smooth. A couple of hours in the hands of a talented carver and they would look far better. You might have to re-stain them. Maybe not.

On 2006-11-07 07:41, Robertiki wrote:
Gosh....

I fell like crap now.
Robert

Don't feel so bad -- you still have a heck of a story. It's not the story you wanted, but it's still a great story. Keep it in perspective: your story ends with you being in possession of 8 honkin' big tikis. It's really not a bad thing.

The two Hawaiian looking guys aren't that bad....I'd have taken them for the price.

I just spoke with one of the Auction workers. He seems to think that some of the statues came out of the Bali Hai in Long Island, a restaurant that went under.

Hmmmmm. Anyone know of this?
Robert

I’m afraid they are yanking your chain; these did not come out of any place aside from a container off a cargo ship. Which pieces do they claim came from the Bali Hai? Not the ones marked “Trader Vics” I hope, that wouldn’t make much sense. Unless they have pictures of the carvings in the Bali Hai (or anyplace else) I would be very skeptical about any explanation they offer you.
The same style wood carvings have been imported from the Far East for the last few years, what are the chances they were ever in an establishment that’s been closed down for decades now.
I don’t know how reputable auctioneers normally are, but perhaps they could refund you some portion of the purchase price?

Bosko

Honestly, like I said, they were beyond cheap.

I've bought cords of firewood too green to burn for less than this.

Besides, anyone who has ever bought at an auction knows that final price is final price.

Besides, the worst situation would be for them to say..."OK, return them then."

Now that I'm back in Oregon.

So my big find ended up not being so big.

Like I said earlier, I have bought firewood for more, and it is going to be one long wet and cold winter.
Robert

hi, I think I bought one on ebay too that looks like the tall one. heres a picture

Amy

Did the end of the bar ever get finished/trimmed before Hale Tiki closed??

( above import tiki)

this is a sleestak!!and her baby chaka!

If I had to guess i'd say those were made in indonesia, probably Bali, by the carve style.

--ST, amateur non Western art detective.

On 2007-04-19 23:19, sleestak wrote:
this is a sleestak!!and her baby chaka!

Dude! that is awesome... now I'm starting to feel my age!