Tiki Finds

MrBaliHai,

I am guessing you found the Tiki Bob's skull mugs in Alameda? Nice find! Also, did you see the guys selling all the Coco Joes stuff at the antique fair in Sacramento?

PTD

On 2008-06-18 15:24, Psycho Tiki D wrote:
I am guessing you found the Tiki Bob's skull mugs in Alameda? Nice find! Also, did you see the guys selling all the Coco Joes stuff at the antique fair in Sacramento?

That's right, PTD. I got the skull mug in Alameda. That particular vendor had a few other nice rarities as well, but the skull pretty much blew my budget for the day, so I left them for someone with a bigger wallet.

I don't recall seeing anyone with a massive amount of CJ stuff in Sacramento, but the guy I bought the Hula Girl bowl from had a few nice pieces.

On 2008-06-18 16:31, MrBaliHai wrote:

On 2008-06-18 15:24, Psycho Tiki D wrote:
I am guessing you found the Tiki Bob's skull mugs in Alameda? Nice find! Also, did you see the guys selling all the Coco Joes stuff at the antique fair in Sacramento?

That's right, PTD. I got the skull mug in Alameda. That particular vendor had a few other nice rarities as well, but the skull pretty much blew my budget for the day, so I left them for someone with a bigger wallet.

I don't recall seeing anyone with a massive amount of CJ stuff in Sacramento, but the guy I bought the Hula Girl bowl from had a few nice pieces.

Next time you make it up our way, be sure to look us up! Always enjoy meeting TC'ers and aside from the skull mug, I could have given you the other stuff (maybe)! hah! Hope the guy with the bowl gave you a good price...seemed a little high to me!

PTD

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2008-06-18 16:50 ]

On 2008-06-18 16:47, Psycho Tiki D wrote:

Next time you make it up our way, be sure to look us up! Always enjoy meeting TC'ers and aside from the skull mug, I could have given you the other stuff (maybe)! hah!

I'm in the Bay Area a couple times a year for business, so I'll be sure to give you a shout the next time I'm in town.

Hope the guy with the bowl gave you a good price...seemed a little high to me!

The bowl had a hairline crack, so I got him to shave a couple of bucks off the price. Yeah, he seemed a little high to me too, and not just in terms of price...:wink:

i picked this set up on the weekend its not tiki but ithought it would go great in the elvis presley jungle room!!

the chairs are just under four feet high and weigh about 150lbs each the tables parlour table height with carved base and top have any of you seen these before? there making small stools out of bali about 2 feet tall for $1200 but i cant find anything else about this larger sz

On 2008-06-16 16:03, Psycho Tiki D wrote:
Sunday was slow and void of tiki, but here are some of the items I found...

Treasure Craft "Hang Ten" with "Hawaii Tiki Isle" on the back and some hula girl and uke player cake toppers.

Aloha PTD! I think Tiki Isle/Hana Isle were a separate company from Treasure Craft,same style though. I think they made bottle toppers for Hawaiian Distillers also...

PS, Nice finds as usual :lol:
Freddie

Super excited about this one. Found this sea turtle shell on craigslist for almost nothing. It's 23" x 20". Great condition.

Although sea turtle shells are classic parts of tiki establishments, I think that at present it is illegal to possess a sea turtle shell since they are protected by the endangered species act. I believe that there are some exceptions for shells and turtle items that are "pre-ban" (which from the looks of it your shell probably is), but you should still be careful with it. It's a cool find, but I just wanted you to be aware that there might be some legal issues to having one.

On 2008-06-19 12:05, Fugu wrote:
Although sea turtle shells are classic parts of tiki establishments, I think that at present it is illegal to possess a sea turtle shell since they are protected by the endangered species act. I believe that there are some exceptions for shells and turtle items that are "pre-ban" (which from the looks of it your shell probably is), but you should still be careful with it. It's a cool find, but I just wanted you to be aware that there might be some legal issues to having one.

great..now we have to be on the look out for the turtle police, sneakin into our home tiki bars to see if our shell's are up to code or not before issuing a citation....like that scene in the terminater where the cyborg breaches the underground bunker with his red glowing eyes, then proceeds to shoot up the place once he spies an illegal shell....

i'd say, as long as you don't advertise or shout it from the roof tops that you have a turtle shell, the enviro-wackos will never know....

i'd say, as long as you don't advertise or shout it from the roof tops that you have a turtle shell, the enviro-wackos will never know....

You may not be shouting on your roof top Kahalakruzer but, you are advertising it in cyberspace.
All enviro-wackos have to do is a word search in google... :wink:

Cut and paste this " turtle shell craigslist " into google. You are number 7 of 73,500 in .28 sec.

EDIT: I meant Kahalakruzer.. :blush:

http://www.greyhoundog.org

[ Edited by: Mr. NoNaMe 2008-06-19 14:53 ]

Illegal? Well shit howdy,I didn't know it was illegal when I killed this turtle down at Doheny last weekend! Yee haw!

Seriously though, I know that it is illegal to own turtle shells that were killed recently, but what I gathered from asking people in the know, is that the ban on turtle shells went into effect in 1973(?) and anything older is grandfathered into the antique/historical/scientific category. I'm assuming these shells fall into the ivory-type category of collectibles, where they just have to be proven to be imported prior to a certain year. I think if it was a huge problem, then Oceanic Arts wouldn't have multiple shells on display, and my little brother's oceanography teacher wouldn't have 2 shells on his wall in public school. The man I bought the shell from was older, and he had owned the shell for years. He thought they were illegal now, but wasn't sure, which kind of shows how long ago he must've bought this one. I guess when I post my address on the internet and leave a key in my door, I'll have to start worrying about these environmental nazis that have nothing better to do then to save the already-dead animals. But if anyone knows the actual laws on this kind of thing, it'd be good to know for future collectors that may have the opportunity to own one of these. Thanks though, for the heads up, to anyone who was worried I was going to get taken out by the green police.

The "it's too old to be part of the Endangered Species Act" excuse was probably dreamed up by people selling tortoiseshell products on eBay. The fact is that it is illegal to sell tortoiseshell products regardless of age. There is no exemption for age of the product. Here's a quote off of http://www.cccturtle.org :

"As for whether it is legal to sell pre-Endangered Species Act sea turtle products, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says "no." Citing an Oct. 19, 1995, U.S. Department of the Interior Solicitor's Opinion, a USFWS representative said that pre-Endangered Species Act wildlife products can never be sold in interstate commerce. This opinion applies to eBay because a 1993 Fourth Circuit Court opinion determined that merely advertising endangered wildlife in the Washington Post newspaper constituted an offer for sale in interstate commerce. Similarly, once an individual lists an endangered wildlife item on eBay, this constitutes an offer for sale in interstate commerce and the Fourth Circuit Court determination applies."

As for OA and your bro's teacher displaying them, I'm sure you've heard the phrase "Two wrongs don't make a right" :) OA has probably had them on their walls forever, but that teacher should know better!

For anyone that thinks it's not fair (IE, it's already dead, what's the harm?), consider the fact that you really cannot prove how old a tortoise shell is (how long it's been dead). If a smuggler thought that old goods were OK, then they would kill turtles and patina the shell to make it appear older. I completely understand the logic of the law in this case. Anything less than a blanket ruling on all products new and old would be too difficult to enforce.

This following is not meant to be directed at kahalakruzer since he already has his shell, but to everyone else: there's plenty of stuff out there to may your tiki bar a cool place to hang out without dealing in illegal trade for endangered species. I'm not an environmental wacko by any means, but I want these species to be around for my kids and their kids to appreciate. Species are usually added to the endangered list when they are in true peril of disappearing, I.E.- it's usually too late by the time they're added.

Welcome to TC....

Turtle Central...

Can I have some turtle soup now!

PTD

HS-TD Homeland Security-Turtle Division. We're from the government and we're here to help.

Right. Now back to our regularly scheduled topic...

I made a detour the other day for an estate sale and lookie:

I've been wanting one of these double coconuts forever! This one is unmarked but nice and thick and only .50 cents.
You never know what you might find.
Aloha,
:tiki:

[ Edited by: Tiki Royale 2008-06-19 22:28 ]

I think we are all very aware here of animal preservation, and for it. We merely appreciate the naivite that the Tiki generation displayed and their subsequent freedom to utilize all sort of things that are no non-p.c. nowadays. Yet just like we do not subscribe to the racist undertones of Tiki from back then, we would never condone the use of turtle shells nowadays.

But illegal or not, they were part of the classic Tiki decor. I have seen a picture from Ren Clark's Polynesian Village that had a whole hallway ceiling covered with them, I always shuddered at the thought of that massacre that provided them. I used to own one of those wall lamps that was a turtle shell which had resin sea horse cut outs that would glow when turned on. I foolishly had it hanging outside and the poor thing disintegrated within a few years, it decayed like a living thing, it just wanted to die.

I think that shell is just one of the many great specimens of a lost lifestyle that will never come back and thus deserves to be preserved and displayed for future generations to learn about their ancestor's ways, with warnings about illegality appreciated.

Pardon me for cluttering up the Tiki Finds thread, but this photo demonstrates the effective use of (now illegal?) turtle shells in this spectacular tiki decor known as Trader Vic's Atlanta.

the peeps in San Diego must be hitting the thrift stores HARD cause i have found Nothing in 3 months.... except a few bennihana mugs which i leave behind...

....plus , you never really know that the rest of the turtle wasn't wasted in the process....i think to assume that just cause it's a shell, then automatically the rest of the turtle was tossed out by poachers...maybe the rest ended up as food and utilized as well ....or maybe not but the point is we'll never know...all that is left is the shell

okay i'm not commenting on this any more from here on out....this is a tiki finds thread and i don't want to start up with the enviro wackos out there in a huge debate.....take it out in the hallway if ya like.

On 2008-06-19 08:05, kahalakruzer wrote:
Super excited about this one. Found this sea turtle shell on craigslist for almost nothing. It's 23" x 20". Great condition.

Well, by that one, you can see how they are endangered.
That is a beautiful shell.

I really didn't mean to start a debate in this thread. I really do think it is cool to find a vintage pre-ban turtle shell, but just wanted to point out the legal side. It was probably illegal for the guy to sell it on Craigslist, so just be careful if you ever decide to pass it on. And if you ever have the head of the EPA over for a Mai Tai, you might want to consider putting it in another room. :) That's all. Now let's see some more cool finds!

Got my first tiki bar today from ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160251055765&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D160251055765%2B%2B%26fvi%3D1

Hope you can view it and the sellers passing my area on his way to Ireland (thats Ireland Guiness not Island Hawaii Hula lol) so is dropping it off how cool!

Decided to sell my house and move into my Flat (apartment) so the bar is going in the new Tiki Lounge to cold to have it out doors - and thats no joke!

mahope

the only turtle i ever saw said cowabunger and was in a toy store

Does it still count as a find if it gets lost in shipping?

Here are some actual "in the wild" finds. Most of these tiki finds were hidden behind benehana mugs at local thrift stores:

A Hawaiian tiki and a couple Treasure craft menehunes:

The signature on the tiki:

A HIP God of Wisdom:

A Lava Ray opener:

2001 Tiki Farm coaster:

Moai tissue box holder:

Home Depot Asian God of Wine plank tiki:

Harvey's mug #1,000,000 found in the wild

Hale Koa Hotel matches:

Hurricane Cove match cover:

S.S. Monterey First sailing Maori tiki:

A kiwiana kiwi:

A 4' x 30' roll of patterned, tapa like material from Samoa:

I also found all this.

Buzzy Out!

In two-zero-zero-eight I took an anniversary trip
Along with Mrs. BH down the mighty Mississip.
We ate a walnut burger and we had some Smørrebrød
And we caught the bloody Cheeseheads in the town of Trempealeau.*

Just got back from a 3-day trip down the Great River Road to pick up our daughter from orchestra camp in Decorah, Iowa. We stayed at a couple of bed-and-breakfasts along the Mississippi River, antiqued and thrifted 'til we dropped, ate odd local delicacies, and generally had a very fun time. The weather was absolutely picture-perfect.

My tiki-scoring mojo appears to have endured since my return from California, as I managed to find stuff just about everywhere I went, and at very reasonable prices too, although I did have to pass up a couple of Trader Vic's fog-cutter mugs in Red Wing, Minnesota which some jackass dealer had marked up to $95 each! Good luck selling those, buddy. I also spotted a vintage Ku ashtray holder made by Red Wing Pottery which was priced at $195. Yikes!

Larger images and item descriptions are located in the mug gallery on my website.

*-No actual foam Cheeseheads were harmed in the making of this truly awful song parody.

Weblog: Eye of the Goof

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2008-06-22 09:00 ]

good weekend....found these cement tiki statues out in the sticks about an hours drive from chicago.....not vintage, but a nice departure from your typical bug eyed moai that you always see in cement...good cement tikis are hard to find..till now......

I bought the big guy below already stained with concrete stain.....gonna stain the little guy in a redish brown maori color next weekend.....the line across his face is the string that had the price tag attached.

here's the small guy after being stained......

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2008-06-22 16:11 ]

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2008-06-22 16:12 ]

[ Edited by: tipsy mcstagger 2008-07-06 09:46 ]

here's some more finds from this weekend.....

full set of vintage calypso themed glasses and caddy...

vintage rattan tiki hut lamp....originally designed for a table lamp, i'm probably gonna turn it into a hanging ceiling lamp.....

vinatage lava lamp..great shape, no dents or dings in the base either.....

and a set of vintage buddha s/p shakers and pair of asian plant holders....

"when the shit eventually hits the fan.......we all get a little on us!!"

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2008-06-22 16:35 ]

Goodwill find mask mug & barrel shot. Both have a sprayed look glaze and are unmarked.

Yard sale finds: Made in Philippines wood mug, 2 shots & plate marked Shonenfeld's, pineapple tray marked USA ES83, Kon-Tiki pineapple ashtray marked Steve Crane.

Fleamarket find. Carved wood. One face has teeth the other has more of a lined mouth. Don't really know anything about this. The guy I bought it from said it was painted white & he stripped it.

A letter opener from the same guy. Unmarked.

[ Edited by: caffeinated 2008-06-22 21:52 ]

Continuing on from my vintage Hawaiian brochures, this week's "finds"...

A full week's worth of Matson Cruise Line watercolor menus by L. Macdillard (Southern California, Austraila, San Francisco, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, New Zealand)along with a menu from the SS Indendence and a Seahorse Menu from a cruise I can't figure out.

Menu cover, one side, unknown orgin.

Books on Hawaiian seashells abd Hawaii It's Physical Aspects and Science Experiences. Shows experiments, including how to make a volcano!

Matchbood covrs from: The Voodoo Room, Miami Beach Florida, The Little Hut, Vero Beach Florida, Trader Vic's, Scottsdale Arizona, Tom Tom, Hollywood, Glendale CA, Shangrila, Chicago Illinois, Aloha Inn, Gaithersberg Maryland, Eastman's Creamery, San Francisco CA, El Tropico Room, Boston Mass, Waikiki Restaurant, Salem Mass, Jsi Alai, New Orleans Louisiana, Mister Tiki, San Diego!

Some Aztiki!

Mug or vase from Sam's Steak and Seafood, Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa.

Shag stationary set, 2003.

Treasure Craft S&P's.

Aztiki mug.

Set of vintage Hawaiian Island drinking glasses.

An assortment of the usual suspect mugs, mostly...you know 'em and love 'em!

Keep on looking, it is all around you!

Psycho Tiki D (I know I am and what is your excuse)?

[ Edited by: Psycho Tiki D 2008-06-23 14:09 ]

Tipsy,
do you know much about the tiki hut lamp? i was given one a few years ago, but i don't know anything about it. good finds!

On 2008-06-22 21:27, caffeinated wrote:
Goodwill find mask mug & barrel shot. Both have a sprayed look glaze and are unmarked.

[ Edited by: caffeinated 2008-06-22 21:52 ]

Nice find on the green mug. Saw one fetch $50 on eBay a few weeks ago.

On 2008-06-22 21:27, caffeinated wrote:

Fleamarket find. Carved wood. One face has teeth the other has more of a lined mouth. Don't really know anything about this. The guy I bought it from said it was painted white & he stripped it.

This is probably from Tahiti...Traditional Marquesan designs.

A letter opener from the same guy. Unmarked.

[ Edited by: caffeinated 2008-06-22 21:52 ]

The letter opener should be marked on the top center of the headress...Coco Joe, lava, made in Hawaii

Aloha, Freddie

Here is the scene at the antique store:

Can you spot the Kahiki teapot? I bolted for it...

Like a bull in a China Shop :)

Some new stuff...

An eBay purchase, unused Trader Vic License, got the frame at Goodwill..

A sweet Buffet 8x10 in a matching frame, sorry I am a Buffett fan, there I said it.

2 New floats that I hung up on my ceiling, with my fishes...

"Wilson" from Castaway is Tiki right? :)

A cool little 50s faux bamboo mirror shelf and some smaller finds...

On 2008-06-24 00:02, HOUSE OF KU wrote:
This is probably from Tahiti...Traditional Marquesan designs.

The letter opener should be marked on the top center of the headress...Coco Joe, lava, made in Hawaii

Aloha, Freddie

Yeah the seller didn't have any background on the boat. Its big though 30" long & 10 1/2 wide. The orange shellac he put on it really makes it look as if it were made of oak, but I assume its another type wood.

Thanks for the opener info. Looked Coco Joe's but somehow I missed that marking.

Tipsy McStagger, I'm a Lava Lite collector too. Your Lava Lite is a Carlisle, series 300, produced from the early- to mid-1970s until about 1982 or 83. Yours is red lava/yellow liquid, a model 306 - in the 70s this was marketed as orange lava in yellow liquid (older ones have light orange lava) and in the early 80s, was renamed as red/yellow. This is a common 70s model, but very uncommon without dents - the very thin aluminum dents easily. A few notes, just in case you're new to lava:

• Don't put in direct sun
• Don't use for more than 8 hours at a time
• Don't move or shake while hot
• Don't add anything to the bottle. The air space is there for expansion
• Use a 40-watt "hi-intensity" C-9/intermediate base bulb, and if the lamp won't start flowing in two hours, gently bend the socket a few millimeters higher

Congrats on finding a very nice vintage model. The catalog put this one nicely: "Stylishness with simplicity; Beauty without blandness". And the pinholes in the base will put sparkles on the walls.

Not a big find, but cool for me as a beginning tiki collector: A few pages back I mentioned finding a Four Seas, Seattle mug shaped like a wise old monk. Today, the same dealer gave me a freebie she found, a rubber Trader Vic's Menehune on its square wooden stick. I haven't examined one of these before - this one is male with a tiny white mustache, a yellow lei, and a black ring of hair with a black crest on top, and a head that can be rotated 360 degrees - I assume this is the standard style, and that a female exists as well. His loincloth strap is stamped in back "(copyright symbol) Trader Vic's Menehune". Was this only used in the Menehune Juice, and is it a recent thing, or have they been around a while?

Hey Torchguy, Nice info. on the lava lamps. Good for the people who are not familiar with them (Like me).

The Menehune Stix have been around for quite a few years. There is the female version as well and they still put them in their drinks to this day as long as they have stock. Not sure exactly when these surfaced but I would say the 1970's.
I have seen one marked Japan so I believe these to be the earlier one's but not 100%.
Last time we were at Vic's, they did come with the Menehune Juice and I believe one other which I can't remember but I think it came in a coconut mug as well.

Psycho, do you have some more information about the brochure/artist ?

I bought a framed print of the one in the centre some time ago in a used book store in Astoria, OR

Thanks,

Bobo

On 2008-06-25 17:16, Traderbob wrote:
Psycho, do you have some more information about the brochure/artist ?

I bought a framed print of the one in the centre some time ago in a used book store in Astoria, OR

Thanks,

Bobo

Bobo,

Since I didn't get the correct spelling of the artist in my post, I did find out some info.

Here is one link:

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkkTo8GJIRQEB939XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEycm52a3R1BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDOQRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkA0Y4NjJfODU-/SIG=123hoe3kj/EXP=1214530152/**http%3a//www.californiawatercolor.com/artists/308

Hope this helps!

PTD

Thanks for the info Psycho, it helped a lot.

Found this looking up the artist: http://www.rubylane.com/shops/fbantiques/item/BA-11089A

The cover of this menu features Louis Macouillard's "New Zealand” on the cover. The menu is “Bavarian Night Dinner.” The cover print is bright and crisp.
[...]

funny thing is, I am in Bavaria now and planning to look for a job in NZ towards the end of the year :o

Bobo

I just had to post this weeks find

:o :o :o

Aloha Nacho!! Nice find...Whats the story behind that beauty?
I see you're honing your photography skills...nice photo...

Freddie

[ Edited by: HOUSE OF KU 2008-06-27 02:18 ]

On 2008-06-25 18:10, TIKI DAVID wrote:

once again...another cryptic post from tiki david that has no explaination with it....what exactly is it you found in this photo that you are posting?? there are 50 items here....which would you like to share with us??? -or did you find everything in this photo all at the same time and that is what you are showing us......or did you find the entire photo at a yard sale and are sharing it with us....try adding some verbal info to your tiki finds posts please so we can understand what's going on...thanks!!

50?

Hey TD, How many of those Witco fountain/statues of fortune do you have total?

Nice sneak attack picture freddie!!
I found the mouna loa mug at a estate sale that my buddy wanted me to go to
I asked if there were any tiki stuff, he said no , just allot of antiques and some port lights that you might need for your bar.. so I tagged along with him.. Looking around and through every box I find It!!!
Sittin with other junk in a box. So I bid on the whole lot ,two box's of antiques for $50.... Score!
also some port lights for the bar for $50

[ Edited by: NOTCH 2008-06-27 10:50 ]