The show me your Witco thread.

Thanks hiltiki!

Since happybuddha confirmed my thrift store find as Witco, I'm happy to get to post a picture here. 6 bucks!!!!

[ Edited by: Tikirose 2013-05-05 19:27 ]

LLAMA BAR!

Went through most of the pages and did not see this.
Not sure but thought I'd post it anyway
No markings or tags on the back,
It cleaned up nice, man was it dustyyyy.
24.00

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2013-06-05 08:42 ]

Anyone have the other 30 pieces of this chess set
:)

Two new as of the past month...

From the 1963 Witco Catalog-MP 11.

Musical Instrument.

Later,

PTD

Great instrument Duane! although.....I know you have little to no wall space left so I hope you found a place to hang them both :)

Not sure I'm madly in love with this table, but the price was right & I needed to get that chalkware lamp off the floor!

I picked this little guy up today for a song. Stands 29" tall. I am almost positive that it is Witco but it is jet black and appears to have been that way for a loooong time. Now the question I have is did Witco produce pieces in this color or should I attempt to strip the paint and restore it? I love the look either way. Thanks.

my opinion,
"it is what it is and you should not try to 'fix' it",
keep it 'as found'

Thanks David. The black on the cat is old and was applied over the entire surface. It also was applied with care as it is a nice even coat not sloppy. The black paint is also a close match to the black paint used on the hair of my Witco wahine chair. Thanks again.

just picked up this guy for a steal.

but i have a few questions. the backing board is particle board so i am assuming it has been replaced; which also makes me suspect the fabric was also replaced. any clue to what the original fabric was; and how is best to fix up the damaged wooden areas.

thanks!

Witco used particle board; it's probably original. If there's the long staples holding the lion in, it's a good bet.

There's lots of posts in this thread about cleaning up witco, but in short: clean, stain (if necessary), feed n' wax. It will look like new.

Nice find!

On 2013-06-25 20:31, exquisitecorpse wrote:
just picked up this guy for a steal.

but i have a few questions. the backing board is particle board so i am assuming it has been replaced; which also makes me suspect the fabric was also replaced. any clue to what the original fabric was; and how is best to fix up the damaged wooden areas.

That's Witco for sure.....don't forget, part of the art of Witco was using ultra-CHEAP materials - and who would want to replace anything on THAT !!? :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2013-06-27 13:35 ]

Happy Buddha:

Between the two of us, I think we have enough to start a herd!

Maybe we can get Graceland in on the action...

--Pete

Yes! We should get together for Mai Tais & let the llamas graze...

It's funny you post that, b/c I was wondering if there were any other documented sightings of the llama bar. I've actually seen the Tahiti bar pop up quite a bit more often than the llama. An elusive beast indeed!

I'm lucky to be able to drink on his back.. :)

Excellent!

It IS a tough one to find; 'til I just saw the pictures of yours, the only other one we'd
seen besides ours was in the Jungle Room at Graceland.

It was actually one of the first pieces of Witco we found in the wild (we're up to about 20 now)...
at the time we had no clue it was so elusive.

Let's all raise a Pisco Sour to the Llama! It will be forever inexplicably linked to Tiki thanks
to the fine folks at Witco.

--Pete

Speak of the damn devil.... One just went up on eBay. With a measly starting bid of 15 thousand dollars!! Pocket change!

I am not a big Witco fan but have always love THEE MAP...just got it recently and it is hanging in my Bali Hai Dining Room.

Awesome map, VampiressRN; It looks like you have the perfect spot for it!

$15K for a Llama bar...?!? I haven't looked into it, but I'm pretty sure you
could buy a team of actual Llamas for that price.

Of course, it's a lot harder to serve drinks on their backs, but they're very
train-able animals.

--Pete

Pete, it's hard to believe that posting was coincidence..

I think we brought the llama-hoarding weirdos outta the woodwork..

Lookout for a stampede!!

Would anyone know what kind of lightweight wood Witco used for their tiki masks? Thanks.

Is it Balsa Wood?

just kidding, mostly Pine & Redwood for the heavier pieces.....I believe
Bosco you know this for sure, what say you?

swamp cedar

SWAMP CEDAR.....Thanks for the info.

That could be a name of a drink. "Bartender, I'll have a Swamp Cedar on the rocks."

Does anyone know what this piece of Witco is? About four feet tall by eight inches square. No attachment points on the piece. Is it just a stand ? Any thoughts would be helpful and thanks.

It's a candle stand.

It also makes a nice holder for this suave gentleman..

Thanks guys. I knew it was Witco just wasn't sure of what it was for. I didn't pick it up but always good to see Witco in the wild. Thanks again.

since open flame and Rum based cocktails do NOT mix well,
I have,and you can too, make a floor lamps out of these.

aaaaaarrrrrghhhh David!

You are truly amazing. That one's a beauty.

Awesome

Tiki David you are amazing when it comes to finding WITCO.I have to ask you and Sven if you have ever seen embellishments like what on this bowl? Its some kind of metal cord nailed to the rim of the bowl. This is part of a fountain I found and I don't think its original, but I would like an experts opinion before I take it off. Its is part of a Buddha fountain that was outside for years. I will post more pics as I continue the repair and restoration. Thanks in advance.

That looks like a hunk of guy wire. The type of wire used to stabilize telephone poles. Just my opinion but I doubt is original to the piece. Maybe it was placed on the bowl to prevent cracking since it was an outside piece.

Could be Trav, it was originally inside and was stuck outside and forgotten about. I think the guy who owned it was an obsessive tinkerer. He put lights all over it and added plastic splash guards and so on so now I am trying to figure out what is original and take off all the extra stuff.

The original Buddha fountain was all wood exterior. You can see some nice photos of it if you do a search. There was one up for sale on here not too long ago.

Went to an estate sale today the house was a very cool Spanish style
so I knew this one would be good.
Saw this Bull hanging WITCO? I'm not sure, the owner said all of the stuff came
from Spain.
Then saw a sword wall hanging, again not sure on this one, no markings on the back.

So my question is... if this did come form Spain, Did they copy WITCO?
Or did WITCO copy them, Or did they sell WITCO in Spain?

I did buy two candle type wall sconces that I do think are WITCO.
WITCO or not I like em, will have photos of those later.
Owner said they had two other wall sconces that they sold that were in Svens book that I pointed out to them.
Then she asked if I wanted to buy my copy of Svens book! ( she thought it was from the sale, HA!)

Such a cool old house somebody is going to rip it all out.
Too bad the time of theme style décor is kinda out.

with a little stencil work, those barrels can become rum barrel lights- and that would work nicely in a tiki nautical themed room.

Skip, the bull and the sword are not Witco pieces. The bull is definitely cool though in my opinion. It has a modernist feel to it. I don't think Witco was sold in Spain back in it's day but I could be wrong. As for the borrowing as in who from who I'm not sure. The colonial Spanish conquistador themed design was a craze for awhile so who knows. The barrel light would be awesome in the home bar for sure. Thanks for the pics.

On 2013-09-08 05:28, Tipsy McStagger wrote:
with a little stencil work, those barrels can become rum barrel lights- and that would work nicely in a tiki nautical themed room.

Yeah I tried to buy them.
But they did not want to take them down.
They also had two of those plastic panels on the wall that are good for making
lights, But again did not want to take down.
Left my number, so we will see if they call.

Today's flea market finds!
Marked $22 each, got 'em both for $30.

The PNG one matches my bar.

[ Edited by: Bora Boris - straightened. - 2013-10-13 19:30 ]

Now those are flea market finds ! Only in Pittsburgh, baby !

On 2013-10-13 21:47, bigbrotiki wrote:
Now those are flea market finds ! Only in Pittsburgh, baby !

Hopefully it means there's things to find out there no matter where you are.
But really it seems there's more around here. I think it may have to do with Pittsburgh's boom and bust corresponding roughly with Poly Pop's. Tempered by Pittsburgh's distrust of trends and fads, so you had Pittsburghers going to Hawaii, but not as many commercial tiki bars.
I could go on about the our being "underserved" my national franchises leading to being skipped by any chain, Trader Vic's, Don's, Stephen Crane, etc.
But this isn't the "How the Heck did the 10th largest American city in 1950's get skipped by tiki" thread.

?

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: Hang10tiki 2014-01-12 09:09 ]

C.W.'s brother