Tiki Finds

Found on a recent trip to Green Bay, WI. Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Tikis:

Weblog: Eye of the Goof

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2009-02-21 09:36 ]

Today's finds...

More of the usual suspects...Orchids Leilani, Coco Joes Hapawood bottle opener and Trader Dick's Peanut mug.

Matchbooks from "the Castaways" "an Enchanting Polynesian Holiday Resort" Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mark Thomas'Outrigger matchbooks.

Moonraker Pacifica and Harvey's Lake Tahoe matchbooks.

Kon-Tiki Portland Oregon.

Matchbook from "Tiburon Tommie's" Pier 41 Tiburon CA.

Although I have heard this place existed, this is the first time I have come across anything from here. Matchbook from "Albert's Tiki-Village" Sacramento CA. Address listed as Marconi at Watt.

Vintage photo of a GI and a Hula girl circa 1940's.

"Hawaii's Greatest Hits, Prince Kalua and the Tropical Islanders".

Vintage Hula doll and an old Disneyland Adventureland shrunken head.

Later,

PTD

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2009-02-21 15:29 ]

D, I love that photo! I grab any WWII stuff like that I can find.

Yesterday's finds from Goodwill

Wow nice find Sputnik! You always great luck.

Greetings Tiki Peeps,

Well, I don't think this qualifies as "authentic" or "vintage", but I figured I'd throw it in here if only for comic relief. Found these at a local shop called Funk & Standard. It's a funky cool place that has a lot of retro/pop stuff. The "free toy inside" is a green tiki eraser thingie which I put on my eyeliner pencil :wink:

I would love to know more about these finds.

This is probably one of my all-time favorites that I picked up at Goodwill.

This napkin holder was found at a yard sale.

And another Goodwill find...

Those were the days...too bad our Salvation Army closed down and our Goodwill turned into ghetto Target...

Found at a thrift store.

craigslist came through for me

I ran across this today. Looks like Witco but I don't know if it's genuine; there were no identifying tags or marks.

helped my parents move today and spotted this Trader Vics menu from 1961. Its in great shape

Dryheat, nice find! Someone must have kept that one hidden under their mattress.

These Kontiki Ports S&P finally went 40% off at the antique store so I snagged them.

On 2009-03-02 03:27, Bongo Bungalow wrote:
Dryheat, nice find! Someone must have kept that one hidden under their mattress.

yea it was in this chest i was moving. hadnt seen the light of day in many years

I have one of those too - but the handle and shape is different

On 2009-02-19 14:12, Fritiof Andersson wrote:
Found a mug from Tiki Gardens i a thrift store i Stockholm. The 6th I have found during 10 years of intense search. Tiki-mugs are rare in ol' Sweden. The mug itself is not that pretty, but Tiki Garden was a cool place. Possibly the mug is rare, or at least rarely collected, it isn't featured on Ooga-Mooga (they do have a shot glass with the same print).

Cheers!

Bucha swizzles came my way. 4 Trader Vic's, 4 Hilton in Hawaii Palm Trees, 3 Kona Hilton Marlins (pretty!), 3 Waikiki Outrigger Hotels, 3 Kauai Surfs, 2 Kauai Hiltons, 2 Surf Resorts, 1 Sheraton Maui, and about 40 others (not shown) from the mainland and Aruba and (I think)Mexico.

Wahoo! I've been lucky this week! Westwood for $2!

Took a trip from Nashville to Cincinnati this weekend - found these 3 guys (2 in Kentucky, 1 in Cincinnati)

An OoH Hotei, Daga Surfer, and a Fu Manchu

Found these a few weeks ago in Nashville - it's a rarity, to say the least:

6 Hawaii Kai Peanuts, and 2 Droopys

I was told this one was mounted on top of a shed for the last 10 years and was quite old. It is 18 inches tall and I’ll probably give it a mini makeover come spring.

I'm curious about markings on Westwood mugs. Perhaps someone could shed a little light. First, are any of them marked with the names of restaurants/bars, because mine aren't? Second, is the simplier logo the older mug?

And lastly, do you suppose these three spiders sleeping off a Mai Tai binge?

10 minutes of speed shopping through Salvation Army led me to these-

3 Malio's Bucket Mugs and 2 Westwood mugs (which I thought were rip offs but was just told by PTD that they weren't-thanks!)that the counter girl said were "too cute".

Total spent - $3.00

[ Edited by: leleliz 2009-03-04 17:43 ]

A few recent finds:

A cocojoes and HIP keychain

Cocojoes Hula girl

A Maori tablecloth with a map of NZ in the center and a few cultural scenes around the edges. Among the scenes are these:

Generic DTBC matchbook:

A matchcover from some old san diego place called "Tropic" and a few BH Tropics matchcovers:

The two tropics ones on the right have 3D boobs like the other one does

The San diego place has 1/26/46 written by hand in it.

Buzzy Out!

i love estate sales! i got 3 handmade hawaiian dresses, 3 aprons, and 4 Bora Bora Carvings, PMP Mug, barkcloth tablecloth and ephemera (napkins, coasters, menus ~ from PNW restaurants)

I love that Outrigger coaster, dogbytes!

todays hunting turned up a bunch of swizzles, including one from the mai kai as well as some vintage deco hotels in miami, like the eden roc.....

also found these 5 flawless unstruck match books from the south pacific in hallendale florida.....alongwith 2 tropic acres, also unused.

Found this nice Fitz & Floyd three-footed Nautilus Bowl/Mug at a local antiques store this afternoon.

We found this 2ft-tall concrete Strikow-esque statue outside of an Ozarks antique-flea market for $10. Into the trunk he went, along with a few duplicate mugs (the tax-day trade off is coming you know).

Hope you get my name SilverLine, I'd love to get that 2' statue and all your duplicate mugs! Oh... that's not what you meant? Darn.

Today's finds...

Unmarked brown and green speckled glazed short Moai mug. I am calling him my Alfred Hitchcock Moai.

Stockton Islander Shrunken Head mug with label.

Looks good with his brothers!

Stockton Islander Hula Girl mug.

Looks good with her sisters!

Ran into Matt (Matt and Melody-Tiki Mookie) under the freeway and he had found this low-ball glass made by Trader Vic's for the 1987 S.F. Giants Baseball World Championship. Matt and I both passed on this, but I went back later to talk to the guy selling it. These were destroyed after SF lost to the Cardinals as this was printed in error. Not many survived. Not a huge sports fan myself, but since it was TV and the guys came down in his price, I went ahead and bought it! Mahalo Matt!

Found some more albums today as well...

"The Piano Concerto Impressions of George Greely, The Most Beautiful Music of Hawaii, with the World Famous Warner Bros. Orchestra and the Outriggers".

"Kamokila Presents Panorama Pacifica".

"Ed Kenney's Hawaii"

Another copy of "The Best of Alfred Apaka".

Another copy of "Paradise Found, The Fantastic Strings of Felix Slatkin".

"The Heart of Hawaii".

Hawaiian Moonlight, Lani McIntire".

"Kainoa, Marlene Sai".

Two older wood carvings, orgin unknown.

This bag from my oldest daughter's trip to Disneyland the past three days, yielded these...

Gotta love when your kids are traveling!

Later,

PTD

Man! It continues to be slim pickins around here, but I'm too stoopid to give up!
Without further ado, the "usual suspects":

Pair of Aloha Hawaii Pineapple S&Ps & a R86 Bowl. Even though I already have 2 of these bowls, this one is really nice with sharp colors & details, so, following my "No tiki left behind mantra!", it came home with me.

My first Samurai Grog mug in great shape.

Finally! My first copy of Quiet Village,$1.00!

Had the guys from my car club over last night & worked a trade with one of them for this:

Not my best finds, but I'll keep looking. Every now & then I find something amazing.

It was a good weekend for shirts. I even found a pair of trunks. (I tried them on, and they're actually pretty darn cute.)

And a few other things.

Don't usually buy mugs anymore but could not pass on this lot of 9 mugs and a Coco Joes tiki.

Included three standard Orchids mugs

Mugs from the Mai Kai, Hawaii Kai, and the Blue Hawaii(Nashville I assume)

A Kahiki mug

A nice homemade mug

And an odd tiki mug from Brazil

and the Coco Joes

Not a bad score for 33 bucks, and just in time for Bogielocks' Tax Day Mug Trade Off!

DC

The Kahiki mug is most likely from Kahiki's outlet store.

My husband came home the other week with this from the Goodwill for $3

I have never seen a square fish float but I like it and the colors look good in my tiki room.

We think it is old because of the made in taiwan sticker on it looks old.

are these square ones common and I have just never seen one?

Great finds from everyone lately, keep 'em coming.

Another slow week, although I did manage to find a few new things today...

Couple of beat up matchbooks, Kauai Surf Inter Island Resorts and Trader Vic's Waikiki.

Two more of these larger Headhunter liquor bottles.

On the same table as the liquor bottles was this Hawaiian styled Avon bottle. The cologone is called "Tai Winds". I call it "Headache Waiting To Happen".

A couple of home project Moai mugs, it looks like they were being converted over to use as bongs!

"Bali Bali, A Decorative Bottle Cover for Quarts and Fifths". Amazing graphics on the box!

Tiki candle holder made by Woodpecker Productions.

Tea or Coffee?? pot from Mark Thomas Outrigger Restuarant in Monterey. Has it's original OMC sticker on the bottom.

Later,

PTD

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2009-03-15 14:46 ]

I dont think anyone is paying attention to the graphics on that box, PTD! You know you can love your quart of booze just dont LOVE your quart of booze!

[ Edited by: leleliz 2009-03-15 17:23 ]

I love it when dealers are hanging around the junk shop warehouse doors waiting for the next cart of crap to come out and I find something AWESOME just sitting on a shelf. For a BUCK.

Frankoma T9 clamshell bowl in white.

Also, Sabu The Coconut Boy's post on Frankoma Items for the Trade Winds Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma is definitely worth a read.

On 2009-03-12 21:34, Tiare wrote:

We think it is old because of the made in taiwan sticker on it looks old.

are these square ones common and I have just never seen one?

Hi Tiare,
I don't know much about the history of the square "floats", but Bob (at Oceanic Arts) has shown me a few and said on numerous occasions how they "used to get these really neat square floats" As far as I know, these are all reproduction floats, but made in the 60's. You do not see them very regularly now, though you could purchase them at the height of the the tiki craze. I would assume they are vintage based on: the thick glass, the shape, the large, even nipple - all this tells me it came from a good mold. The newer reproduction ones are often sloppily made. Also, the type and color of the netting and the corks used in the display are indicative of the set being vintage. That's a great find! and worth way more than $3! A set similar to yours (but with round floats) went for over $50 on ebay not too long ago!

here are a couple things I've stumbled across ....

the seahorse was 3.99 !
(ok the TIKI LEE I picked up in Vegas...)

[ Edited by: TIKIVILLE 2009-03-18 13:22 ]

Some recent finds...
An unopened bottle of "Beachcomber Budd's" Mai Tai mix, Two OMC "Ah So" Geisha mugs, A modern wooden Tiki, a ceramic tiki lamp, two shot glasses, a Dynasty yellow parrot mug, Artie mug, Trader Vic's Sure Shot and a coconut ashtray.

Ok, I didn't really get into digging through records until recently, here is what I have accumulated thus far. I have not listened to many of these except Quiet Village (got 4 of these now.) and the Duke K. Beachboy Party one, which are awesome. Any other keepers in this group?

Here's my find for the day/week/month/century - the carved doors to the original Trader Vic's building on 6500 San Pablo Avenue in Oakland.

The person on the left in the picture above is Kier Fullmer, manager of the Trader Vic's warehouse (although a lot of you already know that), and we're standing with the narrower of the two doors. Upon hearing that I picked up these doors off of Craigslist, she was dubious at best that they were the real doors (as were Midnite, Notch, and most others that I relayed the story to). To be quite honest, I was dubious as well. The doors had been listed at least twice on Craigslist last year, once right after the Trader Vic's warehouse sale, and again last fall. The listing seemed a little odd, as they were described as being from the Emeryville location:
Pair of hand carved tiki doors - (oakland hills / mills)
Pair of hand carved tiki doors. These doors came from the original Trader Vic's in Emeryville. The larger door measures 36 inches by 80 inches. The smaller door, 26 inches by 80 inches. Both are very heavy.

So I decided to check it out. I figured that at best I might be checking out some doors that came from somewhere in the interior of the current Trader Vic's on 9 Anchor Drive in Emeryville, and at worst they would make a nice entry for my home bar.

When I contacted the seller, I asked her if she had a back story for the doors, and indeed she did. To her knowledge, the original Trader Vic's location at 6500 San Pablo Avenue was closed and relocated to it's current location at 9 Anchor Drive around 1970 or 1971 (sounds about right). The owner of a bar over on Telegraph Avenue and 23rd knew Vic Bergeron, and bought the doors off of him, and then hung them on his bar, Cabel's Reef. (I have no idea if Cabel's Reef was a tiki bar or not at the time, but my nephew lived in an apartment above Cabel's Reef around 8 years ago, and at that time it catered to the LGBT community). The doors remained on the building until late 2007, when Cabel's Reef was sold to it's current owner. She changed the name to The Vibe lounge, and did some heavy remodeling and redecorating. She removed the doors, and they've been in her garage ever since. She was wondering what to do with them. and had been thinking about cutting them up, and turning them into table tops!

Upon seeing the doors, I was both excited and disappointed. Excited, because after seeing a bunch of the more vintage carvings at the Trader Vic's warehouse sale last year, these doors immediately jumped out as being authentic carvings that fit right in with all of the other decor that the company would have been using at the time. I had a really good feeling at first glance. But I was disappointed too, because the doors were tagged up fairly heavily with graffiti, which was not prevalent at all on the photos on Craigslist, as seen below:

When I asked the seller why the photos in the ad didn't show any graffiti, she said that the pictures were taken the day she bought the bar, and when she went back the next day to remove the doors, they had already been tagged. (Since the graffiti is black and pink in color, I wonder if it was done by a customer and/or employee that was disgruntled that Cabel's Reef closed, and marked it just like the ol' Lincoln's Address folks changed the name on Forbidden Island's license application notice to "Brokeback Island"?)

Anyways, I decided to buy the doors, graffiti or no graffiti. I was able to fit the smaller of the two doors in the trunk of my car, when the rear seat was folded down, and Midnite journeyed over to the East Bay the next day to help me pick up the larger heavier one. Then we celebrated with Val's Burgers.

Midnite and I brought the smaller of the two doors over to the Trader Vic's warehouse a few days later, and met Notch there. When Kier examined it, she immediately could tell that the door was very very old. She had speculated over the phone that they could be carved teak, but when she saw it she ruled out teak right away. She thought that they might be carved out of ironwood, and brought over one of her woodworking specialists, Javier, who confirmed that they were indeed ironwood, and indeed very old. All of the original hand carved tooling marks are still extremely visible. The original finish is still on the top 5 inches or so of the top of the doors, where they were most sheltered from the elements, and the finish gradually fades away until it is completely worn off two thirds of the way down.

In Kier's opinion, due to the age, materials, carving pattern, tooling marks, and the fact that one door is wider than the other, that these are indeed the original doors to the original Trader Vic's location at 6500 San Pablo Avenue. We haven't figured out exactly how far back they date, but it definitely would have been post Hinky Dinks, perhaps in the early 1950's. I'm waiting for the corporate office to try to find some type of photo to 100% validate this claim, but so far all of the photos show the building with the doors open.

And for you urban archaeologists, here is where the doors were hung at Cabel's Reef/The Vibe Lounge:

The original Trader Vic's location at 6500 San Pablo Avenue:

A Hinky Dink's photo for comparison:

Artist rendering of the original Trader Vic's:

9 Ancor Drive, where the doors definitely were NOT mounted. Neither here:

Nor here:

So as I await some kind of photo from the good folks at Trader Vic's, I need to figure out how to remove the grafitti without harming what's left of the original finish or the wood. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Maybe I should start a thread for those recommendations in "Creating Tiki". I'll post more close up photos later - these doors are really heavy, and not easy to move around. Until then, let the spirited debate ensue! :)

Great find and story. Good detective work too. Those must have come from a big ironwood tree. We have some in my area. They used it to make axles for wagons and was very heavy and very strong. That stuff is like iron.

Hey Mai Tai that ad ran on CL about 9 times. I watch CL like a hawk so I am glad you paid a better price than what they were originally posted for :)

What a bust though that they were tagged. Can you imagine making a trip from someplace like SoCal to get them and then seeing then NOT in the condition of the picture? At least they were somewhat local for you.

I have no idea how to remove the tags but what do you plan on doing with them?

When I first saw them I thought 1 would make an awesome dinning table (just get a piece of glass to fit over it to protect the surface) and the other maybe a buffet or just hung on the wall.

Hope you haggled with her after seeing the door condition but glad they are authentic and went to someone who would appreciate them (and hopefully be able to restore them!)

**by the way...nice close up of the burger! ha!

[ Edited by: leleliz 2009-03-19 08:26 ]

What about contacting your local city maintenance crew and see what they use for graffiti abatement? They must deal with removing graffiti from wood.

Congratulations on picking up those doors! I'm glad someone was able to save them. Thanks for sharing those pics and all the background work you've done so far!

On 2009-03-19 04:12, Mai Tai wrote:
folks changed the name on Forbidden Island's license application notice to "Brokeback Island"?)

Now that's Laugh out Loud funny.

I'd go to a professional furniture restorer for advice on removing the paint from wood, city cleaners aren't to concerned about leaving the surface over clean when they remove paint.