The Tiki Bowl Thread

After some proper nudging from the Tiki gods on Tiki central… here, under one thatched hut, is a gathering place for all Tiki bowls. An attempt to give a little history and chronology of the Tiki bowl with the hopes that TC members correct me and fill in the blanks...

As the tropical bar embraced its more dignified pagan roots and became the Tiki establishments we all love today, a proper drinking vessel was needed. The first and most obvious step was to embellish on the ceremonial Kava bowl. Not to drink virgin blood, but to serve tropical libations.

A traditional Kava Bowl.

And when looking at the Hawaiian Menehune bowl, we can see the inspiration of small Tiki like figures holding a bowl.

Around 1950 Victor Bergeron added the Tiki Bowl to his menu for which he needed, well, a Tiki bowl.

Early 50s San Francisco/Oakland menu featuring the Tiki Bowl for $1.50. The asterisk denotes that it’s a Trader Vic’s original… god forbid you ever say different!

When Trader Vic opened his San Francisco location in 1951, he hired respected potter Dickman Walker (1907-1953) to create a new bowl for his new original drink.

The round bowl was hand thrown and held up by three miniature Marquesan tikis. It’s marked “made for Trader Vic by Dickman Walker” and we can safely date this bowl between 1951 and 1953 making it the earliest (first?) documented Tiki bowl.

This classic Tiki bowl design has since been a mainstay of nearly every Tiki establishment to this day. The variations are surprisingly minor - usually just the type of Tikis holding up the bowl. It should be noted though that with almost all later Tiki bowls, the bowl is triangular and not round.

A drink card from Trader Vic’s The Outrigger in Seattle (with the more triangular bowl). The Outrigger was built circa 1949-1950. Given the $1.50 price, it seems the Tiki bowl was widely used by all Trader Vic locations already in the early 1950s. But which version?

I have seen only two other variations that are marked Trader Vic. One simply marked “Designed and made Exclusively for Trader Vic”

And one made in Japan marked “MADE EXCLUSIVELY FOR TRADER VIC’S ©1963.”

Then there is also the blue Tepco version.

Given the known association Tepco had with Trader Vic, it is likely that the blue Tepco Tiki bowls were used at Trader Vic’s. With the copyrighted 1963 bowl, one can only guess which bowl was used at Trader Vic’s from from 1953 to 1963.

Here’s another variation of the Blue Tepco version but for the Bali Ha’i at the beach in New Orleans.

I presume this is Tepco but not sure.

Here’s an all black variation.

Unmarked and unknown maker but with a made in Japan sticker. Probably Otagiri.

And then we have all the Orchids of Hawaii versions…

Which degenerated into the Dynasty version :(

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I guess…

Soon after the introduction of the Tiki bowl by Trader Vic, other restaurants created their own version. Probably because they feared being called a 'dirty stinker', the tiki bowl became the designated bowl to serve a Scorpion in - and thus the Scorpion Bowl. The Los Angeles Islander in the late 50s hired Spurlin Ceramics to make all their drink ware. For the Scorpion bowl, Spurlin created a triangular bowl held up by three Tikis. However this time the Tikis take on the Hawaiian Ku form.

The Ku version of the Tiki bowl was more or less copied by Otagiri (who copied almost all of the Spurlin line).

This OMC version of the KU Tiki bowl is quite common and was widely used including, ironically, the Stockton Islander. One variation traveled across the Atlantic and found itself in Spain used at the House of Ming, Madrid.

An obvious copy of the OMC version.

And here is a different Ku version by Louis B Ceramics of Hawaii

I’ve seen many varieties of this bowl including ones by LaTour and Gecko’z. Does anyone know which is the earliest version of this bowl?

In the 60s, Steve Crane’s luau was not to be outdone. So when he created a Tiki Bowl, he made undoubtedly the most lavish one. Three highly detailed Marquesan tikis’ holding a full colored and painted triangular bowl.

Here’s an unmarked Tiki bowl that actually uses the Steve Crane luau salt and pepper Tiki's with the thumbs-up gesture as the basis for the Tikis.

I doubt this was ever used at any of the Steve Crane locations. Anybody know where it was used?

And here’s another beautiful Tiki bowl made in Hawaii by Terra Ceramics for the Kahala Hilton. Again, clearly derived from the Trader Vic version with three Marquesan Tikis holding the bowl.

And then there is this amazing Maori based Tiki bowl.

I believe this was used at Sam’s Seafood and made by Spurlin. Need some help on this one…

And last but not least, we have the Kahiki with their own gigantic tiki bowl. So big it needed 4 tikis to hold the damn thing up.

I don’t believe one has ever been found… To many the holy grail of Tiki mugs & bowls.

The incredible Mai Kai version of the mystery drink did away with the Ku Tiki and replaced it with a .. well… more handsome and muscular island man (for the ladies I presume).

This is the original super rare version made by Harper of Florida which is amazing.

A later and slightly more colorful version was made by Otagiri.

There are actually a couple bowls that more closely resemble the traditional Kava and Menehune bowls

From the Polynesian in Torrance that actually used the more traditional Kava bowl design. Note the added Tiki faces on the side. Does anyone actually have one of these??? Never seen a real one. Not sure about the date either but looking at the process it must be from the early to mid-50s I would guess.

And a Tiki bowl directly based on the “menehune” bowl.

This bowl was used at Trader Nick’s, Pismo as seen in the above postcard. Although Tiki figures holding the bowl are the Don The Beachcomber Salt and Peppers shakers.

Well, this seems like a good start. i know there’s a lot of Tiki bowls I missed and haven’t covered so please add more bowls, more variations, more menu scans and any info you got!

Great information and awesome pictures of great Tiki history. Thanks!

LOVE. Thank you for this! What a grand tour.

Nice work Tattoo! :)

Thanks for all the work and sharing.

GREAT post. Interesting to see how tiki culture has evolved and changed to meet some different demands.

The only bowl I have in my collection is the UH OA from Trader Sam's... I should fix that. :)

Tatoo,

Nice research, well put together thread.

Don the Beachcomber also used the Tiki Bowl, as seen on this menu I have.

Looks to be the off the shelf Orchids of Hawaii bowl.

There was also the Tiki Bowl used at the Outrigger Club in Oklahoma.

And Ren Clark's Tiki Bowls from the great menu posted by Jon Paul.

And this Tiki Bowl used at the Tahitian.

DC

Forgot about the strange "Voodoo" Tiki bowl from Albert Gee's Poly-Asian in Houston that came in two sizes.

DC

Looks like a few new candidates for the Crypto-Mugs thread in there.

A Canadian entry from Céramique de Beauce.

DC

On 2014-06-04 22:43, Humuhumu wrote:
LOVE. Thank you for this! What a grand tour.

Here here, what she said!!!

On 2014-06-05 12:35, Loki-Tiki wrote:
[Here here, what she said!!!

Since GROG hasn't said anything yet, the phrase is actually "Hear, hear.": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2014-06-05 16:41 ]

Thanks everyone for the kind words (and thanks to whosoever images I used :) ). But, I must first and foremost thank Sven (bigbro) for pointing the way. I should quote him here from the Crypto thread where he does a much better job than me - with better images - explaining the origins of the Tiki Bowl:

The Tiki supported drinking bowl is a very logical "first", as the concept was take directly from museum pieces, most likely one of the Hawaiian bowls, this being the most famous one:

The Hawaiians made quite a few others...

...and there are Maori-made designs too:

Looking at the Hawaiian bowls, from what I understand actually represent Menehune holding the bowls (yes?), we can clearly see the basis for the Ren Clark bowls:

One of which was in fact found:

The original Hawaiian bowls using Menehune makes actually a lot of sense since Menehune are mythological miniature people. Would it actually be offensive to use Tikis in this manner? Well, I don't think anyone really cared to ask. Leave it up to the westerners to re-interpret a culture for their own desires - to make it more exotic!

Okay... obviously I also completely left out the whole array of Moai bowls which is a whole other chapter. Anyhow, more bowls please!

[ Edited by: tattoo 2014-06-06 09:12 ]

Found some great pics of the Tepco factory from 1955.

TEPCO - Technical Porcelain And China Ware Company

And here we see the Tiki bowl being mass produced for the burgeoning Tiki bar explosion.

It places the Tepco bowl at least as early as 1955. I would presume this to be the blue Tepco Tiki Bowl - although it’s hard to tell in black and white :)

Off to Trader Vic’s!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/12820606@N04/sets/72157612445162322

On 2014-06-04 21:47, Tattoo wrote:

This bowl was used at Trader Nick’s, Pismo as seen in the above postcard. Although Tiki figures holding the bowl are the Don The Beachcomber Salt and Peppers shakers.

I found one of these last year in Minneapolis, of all places, and was wondering where it was from. Thanks!

Very nice photos from Tepco...Thanks Tattoo. OGR

Digging this thread, Tattoo, thanks for starting it up! I'm not too familiar with the history of bowls, though I am a fan of them!

Yeah, this is really informative. I've seen some Trader Vic's and Kahiki bowls before, but the variety in the others is stunning. Great thread, thanks for posting!

...and there are Maori-made designs too:

Aloha,

fun thread. Although, I think the Maori vessel is called a "feather" or "treasure" box. Used to hold, ornaments not drinks.

Here's some in the British Museum.

On 2014-07-23 20:17, Phillip Roberts wrote:

Aloha,

fun thread. Although, I think the Maori vessel is called a "feather" or "treasure" box. Used to hold, ornaments not drinks.

Here's some in the British Museum.

Thanks for the great link and the info. Very interesting and educational. I must admit some personal embarrassment for not having done more research on true Hawaiian and South Pacific culture. Although thanks to my love for Tiki Pop, I have learned a lot. There's no doubt that the American version of the South Pacific culture is its own! As documented by Sven, there really is this wonderful fictionalized myth created by these bars. To quote the Trader Vic's description of the Tiki Bowl:

"Tiki Bowl - A ceremonial drink among the Polynesians. Served in a cup guarded by Lesser Demons with the symbolic gardenia afloat on the surface."

Is any of this true??? Was there ever such a thing as a Tiki Bowl? What exactly does the "symbolic gardenia" symbolize?

[ Edited by: Tattoo 2014-07-23 21:48 ]

Just hazarding a guess that at a loose connection to the communal Kava bowl ceremonies that were and still are an important part of the culture and commmunity of western Oceania that the founding fathers of Poly pop appropriated and ran with.

Wonderful thread...keep em coming!

Nice thread! Who owns The house of ming Madrid bowl? Pretty rare!

Anyone know where I can get a Hawaiian Menehune wood bowl like on page one of this thread? Tikimaster.com used to sell the but not any more.