Witco Tiki Bar and Stools Ebay/Treadway auction

Noticed this one at Treadway Auctions May 6 (and on ebay):

ebay link

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore - shortened link - 2007-04-27 14:20 ]

Thank you, but why would this be called a Tiki bar?

Maybe the same way that this is a Hawaiian African Totem Tiki Tribal Witco Clock:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110118492427

For truth in advertising!!! :)

On 2007-04-26 21:55, bigbrotiki wrote:
Thank you, but why would this be called a Tiki bar?

Sven -- Is it not a Tiki bar? I dont understand your question. Because it doesnt have actual tikis on it?

So is this a tiki bar? Same Witco Hacienda model but with leopard print and a tiki-ish mask on front:

:)

do not go there tikikollektor. it is a 'no win'. it is part of a 'holier than thou tiki thing'. any thing that calls itself 'TIKI' must be APPROVED by the 'TIKI SNOBS'

[ Edited by: TIKI DAVID 2007-04-27 11:17 ]

I get it.

But in my humble opinion, all it would take to change either the "Witco Spanish Colonial Hacienda Bar" or the "Witco African Jungle Bar" into a "Tiki Bar" would be to plop a nice cold mai tai in a tiki mug on it! :)

OH NO! free will thinking, how bold. Tread very carefully in here with that kind of thing.

Hmmm.... wtf?

Seriously.

Wow! I think I better bow out of this one, too far gone! :)

On 2007-04-27 13:34, bigbrotiki wrote:
Wow! I think I better bow out of this one, too far gone! :)

Without even answering my question?? I am beseechingly curious about your initial comment. And I'm only speaking for myself here. All sarcasm/wit/jabs aside, I truly respect your opinion (who wouldn't?) and value your wisdom. So......?

On 2007-04-27 13:34, bigbrotiki wrote:
Wow! I think I better bow out of this one, too far gone! :)

..don't bail out now!! give em' all hell!!!

It screams Spanish to me -- so much so, that if it were side-by-side with it's tikified cousin pictured lower down in the thread, I might not realize it was the same bar. (Although, with the leopard print, it actually looks kinda African to me.) It is lovely, and I agree with your assertion that it can work with the right trappings around it.

It's not just about it not having a tiki on it, though... a rattan bar without a tiki still at least looks tropical, but this bar in its current state says CONQUISTADOR! so boldly that I don't know that I would have chosen it as a tiki bar.

a butterfly

Whay is that kid sitting on the power lines?

..because he is WAY out!

Sorry...I don't wanna be mean now. TK, the "bowing out/too far gone" reply obviously does only marginally refer to your inquiry.
I never turn my back on an honest question (especially when I provoked it), and everyone here knows that I never tire, and am always happy to repeat my old adage:

"If it says Tiki on it, it should have Tiki in it!" or, in this case, that would be:

"If it says Tiki on it, it should have Tiki ON it!"

This is a Tiki Snob mantra invoked to slow down the inevitable watering down of the style. Inevitable, because there will always be people who will share your "liberal" point of view. Example:

This lovely Witco ensemble will be pictured in my upcoming book. Inevitably, in the future, this Conquistador furniture will be referred to as "Tiki" by some, because it

A) is depicted in a book with the title "Tiki Modern", and

B) some of it was selected by Elvis to grace his Jungle Room !

So, while the Elvises of this world will have a ball in THEIR vision of Tiki, we the Tiki snobs and Tiki elitists will continue to talk like fags (see "Idiocracy") and huddle together, and, with a sneer and a crazy grin on our faces, go on mumbling "...FOOLS, ALL!...THEY are crazy...WE know better..hee hee..", and everyone will be happy in their own way! :)

PS: My initial question was really more intended to criticize the "jumping on the Tiki band wagon" mentality of e-bay sellers (as I tried to make clearer with my "Hawaiian African Totem Tiki Tribal Witco Clock" example).

It has become a repulsive custom by e-bay traders to title ANY item from the house of Witco, be it Viking, Conquistador, modern or just charred wood as "Tiki", using the name of the god of the artists in vain and for profit, to get more clicks. While in itself understandable, it does confuse the definition of the genre for the newer Tiki seekers.

So when I see a member of the congregation seemingly fall for this insidious form of dis-information, I get irked. :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2007-04-27 16:42 ]

Nothing gets the "Koll Kids" blood boiling then the selling of a bar !!!!

correction: "Kool Kids"

Genius! That's me, right there!

OK, Murph, now YOU deserve your fair answer:

That image of the floating kid was supposed to evoke a Zen-like sense of relativity in relation to the question at hand: What is Tiki? What is a butterfly?

In actuality this is a non-photoshopped snapshot of my son Diego hitting a perfectly still pose while being bounced up by the big trampoline in my front yard. Took a couple of tries to get it that perfect! :)

On 2007-04-27 11:15, TIKI DAVID wrote:
do not go there tikikollektor. it is a 'no win'. it is part of a 'holier than thou tiki thing'. any thing that calls itself 'TIKI' must be APPROVED by the 'TIKI SNOBS'

[ Edited by: TIKI DAVID 2007-04-27 11:17 ]

Hey! Are they a band???

Trader Jim - Make mine a Mai-Tai!

...not yet, but they SHOULD be! And their opening act would be the KOOL KIDS! :)
Instead of carving Tikis like Crazy Al does for a APE acts, they would burn badly done Tikis...and smash Party Store Tiki trinkets.

Trampoline in the front yard...
Easier for the EMT's to treat the broken bones than going to the back of the trailer!!!

It's part of that Conquistador series, still nice Witco. I had the bar recently and sold it to Mojo in Fort Lauderdale. The thing I can't believe is that William Westenhaver is now being sold at a Treadway auction next to Mies Van DerRoe, Charles Eames, Arne Jacobsen, and Breur Wassily! Well deserved in his own right. It really has come full circle!

Bigbro,

When is that book coming out so I can sell my non tiki custom Witco Bar?

On 2007-04-29 08:16, Basement Kahuna wrote:
The thing I can't believe is that William Westenhaver is now being sold at a Treadway auction next to Mies Van DerRoe, Charles Eames, Arne Jacobsen, and Breur Wassily! Well deserved in his own right. It really has come full circle!

That's exactly what I was thinking. As someone who has collected Arts and Crafts and other 20th Century design for a long while, I think it's only a matter of (short) time before Witco (tiki, conquistador, viking, or whatever style) is identified as particularly representative of some type of "1970's style" in American decorative arts. I recently previewed Dave Rago's modern auction and he and I were discussing the Paul Evans pieces (real "art furniture" from the same period). The premier Evans lot is a cabinet estimated at around $80,000-120,000, so collecting 1970s decor has certainly arrived, but Witco is almost completely unknown (for now). None of the Modern dealers I've spoken with in NYC have heard of it (until you say "Elvis Jungle Room"). But of course everyone who sees it says "that's so 70s!"

In my opinion, Witco might be to Paul Evans what Stickley (pick your brother) is to Rohlfs, Green and Green or Frank Lloyd Wright --- the somewhat mass-produced exemplar of a design era, with an occasional artistic all-star thrown in (and yes, a fur covered carved jungle room lounge chair might be that!). There are an awful lot of people around now who are kicking themselves for not recognizing Stickley back when it was affordable (and when most people had the same reaction to Mission style as they do now to the Jungle Room stuff!). It may be that the next generation will build their important Witco Decor collections by buying pieces out of Treadway, Rago, even Christies on a regular basis.

One last thought -- all it would take to change the landscape is for one key dealer to show up at the Modernism Show or the Pier Show in NYC with a complete Witco suite set up as a room installation on some killer green shag wall-to-wall! The trend spotters would be all over it -- next thing you know there's a feature in Elle Decor -- and each of your bar stools (Tiki or not tiki) are now worth $1500 a pop.

[ Edited by: Tiki Kollektor 2007-04-29 17:42 ]