Help me identify this vintage Tiki restaurant table PLEASE

I just found this table which is a typical square restaurant/bar pedestal type....except for the formica top. Check out the design! I really would like to know where this may have been originally used. Does anyone out there have any idea where this may have come from??? Owner was absent and seller had no knowledge. Is this design familiar to someone? Looks like a late 60's or early 70's design to me. What have I got here?? help!

Sorry, never seen this particular design, but I would say you are dead on with your period guess.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-12-27 08:33 ]

I have that design on a small table that's about 2 feet high.
It has a white formica top.
It's much easier to see on white.

..are you sure that isn't just some crayon scribbling from some child that sat at that table years ago in some tiki restaurant??

Not with the lovingly rendered anatomy of the Wahine. Let's see a pic of that other table, please!

Wow 8-ft! Did you buy it? (I hope you did!) My first thought was the Kon Tiki on Main, just from the era and the otherwise common barware description. I've no clue otherwise.

Did you find it locally?

This table is about 2 feet high and about 2 feet in diameter.
No maker marks, the top is made of Formica and the legs are thin iron.
It was found in Cincinnati.

[ Edited by: Tiki Joe 2008-12-28 22:30 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Joe 2008-12-28 22:32 ]

Very cool! Two tables, two different colors, two different places but with the same design. And a good design as well! Very nice! Maybe show the legs and base and we might be able to date it a little better or maybe a maker. Although, most commonly, the legs would have a different manufacturer than the top. Going from the look, it does look like 1970's is bang on.

Thank you for those photos! My guess is that this was not a specific restaurant logo, but a generic decorative design offered at the time. The fact that the tables seem like restaurant tables might indicate that it was used by restaurant supply companies, like Orchids of Hawaii. To illustrate my point here an example of a generic Tiki scene used for another purpose :

OK, is that a severed hand holding a towel to the left of the bamboo pole? That's kinda freaky!

Nice tables. Is the design painted on or is it part of the Formica?

The design is not painted on.
It looks printed on.
I think Sven is right about the origins of this design.
Mine is a table that would have been in a home.
It's far too short and small to be from a restaurant.
Plus, it's not banged up from use.
I find it odd that the design changes colors in the same places.
Another thing that backups up the home design is the use of purple and orange on faux wood.

I wondered if the smaller table you have Joe could be a table to set your drink or ashtray on while sitting in chairs. As in a lounge or waiting area. Don't know what the legs on your table are like but the big table has a single pedestal support in the center. That is not a home use type of table at all. The mystery deepens..........

I just shot an e-mail off to a guy in KC, Tyler Wirken, who has a wedding photography business. Just Googled Wirken and found him. I thought, perhaps, being a Wirken himself, he might know of an artist by that name who would have drawn in the 60s or 70s and disguised his signature as grass in his artwork.

If you look to the right and just below the boat in the drawing, there is a patch of grass that looks a bit like a signature. If it is a signature, it looks like it might be Wirken. That's pretty much the extent of my effort in this. I'll let you know what he says if I hear back.

I heard back from Tyler Wirken a few days later. He said it was interesting but knew nothing about it. I sent another note in response asking if there was anyone in his family who might know of a relative whose artwork it might be. I haven't heard back yet, so I don't suppose I will.

Looks like the design on the Club Trade Winds Tulsa OK. matchbook. Maybe it came from the Trade Winds. Looks like the closest match yet.

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-03-16 05:40 ]

On 2009-03-16 05:39, uncle trav wrote:
Looks like the design on the Club Trade Winds Tulsa OK. matchbook. Maybe it came from the Trade Winds. Looks like the closest match yet.

Closest Match Yet....I love it...:)

---

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-03-16 05:40 ]

Arr Arr! Very clever you two! My kind of humor!

I guess I should have said that this is the design that is most similar to the table design that we have seen to date.
Sorry for the unintentional pun.

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-03-16 18:11 ]

Another Trade winds matchbook with the same image...