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Where are these "Mystery Tikis" from?

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Aloha Folks!

These two tikis came into the mall today, and I can't quite figure out where they're from. The dealer who brought 'em in said the fella she bought them from told her they were from a Restaurant or Lounge in California, and he got 'em back in the 80's. That's all the info he gave her.
They are about 3 1/2' tall and made of concrete with aggregate mixed in for strength. There are no makers marks. They are identical, so they must have been manufactured by a company that made a good number of these.

Any ideas?

Mahaloz!

H

Sven will probably be able to weigh in with better/more info, but those are some old concrete lawn tikis, seemingly inspired (or created by) M. H. Strikow's '60s Kahlua decanter (which was maybe aiming for a South American vibe, rather than Polynesian). They do crop up here & there, and they're pretty cool!

http://www.ooga-mooga.com/cgi-bin/all/mug.cgi?mode=view&mug_id=949

This Tiki Central post from Sven shows the statue he has in his own yard:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=30812&forum=5&vpost=425661

Thanks Humu. Here is a post that shows some of the other uses of the design:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=1099&forum=5&vpost=567701

The lawn Tikis design is not quite as abstract as the Strikow bottle, but they are clearly related. Here is another photo of the dark ones in Situ, courtesy of Sabu:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=1099&forum=5&vpost=569116

Yeah, the Strickow Decanter was the first thing I thought of too when I saw 'em. I also figgured they were just lawn statues as well, but I hadda ask...

Thanks A Bunch!

After seeing these photos I have much more appreciation of the ones in our backyard. Thank you for posting, Wendy

T

On 2011-06-25 17:57, Tiki Lee's wrote:
Aloha Folks!

These two tikis came into the mall today, and I can't quite figure out where they're from. The dealer who brought 'em in said the fella she bought them from told her they were from a Restaurant or Lounge in California, and he got 'em back in the 80's. That's all the info he gave her.
They are about 3 1/2' tall and made of concrete with aggregate mixed in for strength. There are no makers marks. They are identical, so they must have been manufactured by a company that made a good number of these.

Any ideas?

Mahaloz!

The tikis are for sale in the Charleston Antique Mall for $375/pair. They were purchased at an estate sale on Friday for $80/pair. Helluva markup

I passed on those at that sale, but know I saw that old image, I have a better appreciation for them!

That's the name o' the game, TP, you know that!

Kinda like LP's that are 50cents at a yard sale that sell for $10 or more on-line... :wink:


[ Edited by: Tiki Lee's 2011-06-27 01:31 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Lee's 2011-06-27 01:34 ]

Pages: 1 7 replies