Tiki Finds

Nice Finds everyone. I'm especially jealous of the SB Decanter and the Voodoo Grog Glass. The Velvet painting is cool too.

Here's what I've found since my last reply 20 days ago. It's actually been a pretty good month...

The Kon Tiki Mug and the lone salt (pepper?) shaker were found together at a thrift store I check seldomly, but this was the first time I'm found anything Tiki.
The middle darker Maori carving and the Moari wood box were found together at the Goodwill in the NW of Calgary.
The S & P shakers look like they were from Trader Vic's but actually come from the Mauna Loa. Which one I'm not sure. If anyone knows, I'd be happy to hear it...I found them at a Sunday Flea Market along with the Moari carving behind them.

This was a big find. The most stuff I've ever found at a thrift store in one trip. It's all from the NE Goodwill. Some Tiki-phile must have recently passed away (...Tiki A Moaikingbird?) The crappy thing about this find is that the store knew what it had...and priced it higher than usual. (How did Basement Kahuna once put it..."Kiss Goodwill Goodbye"?) I didn't care. It was still cheaper than eBay. But then again, I did already have most of it...

Oh, and what do you think of the sheet I'm using in the background? It's actually a Duvet cover and mattress sheet set I found at Value Village. I thought it looked like Tapa, but I'm no expert...

Pretty decent haul, Slacks. I covet the Kon Tiki mug. You didn't find 2 did you?

Tiki A. Moaikingbird is still very much with us -- he sent me pictures of his weekend finds which included Al Harrington and Leilani mugs (like yours) and a set of 5 treasurecraft menehunes with booklet.

Wow Slacks, congrats on the great finds! You must have been pretty excited!!

Gosh, nice finds, maybe since summer is over people are unloading their "luau" gear. Today I found this Trader Vics ashtray just when I about gave up on Goodwlll

I found this a while back . . almost didn't buy it because it's cracked, but I'd never seen one before. Obviously it's not tiki, but it was cheap so what the heck. Anybody ever seen one of these, maybe for different restaurants?

Thanks!

After a pretty long dry spell, I tracked down a nice collection on Craigslist.

I picked all of these up for $40.00:

2 Trader Vics skull mugs (one is stamped TV, the other isn't).
1 Harvey's Barrel Mug
3 Dynasty Wholesale parrot mugs (one red, one green, one blue).
1 Tiki Farm shot glass
2 Trader Vics coconut mugs
1 Unmarked, Orchids-type R-5 mug
1 White mug stamped Kansas State University, 2000.

I also found the following during the dry spell:

1 Hinano Tahitian Beer Ashtray
1 Aloha/Hawaii Cup
1 Plain White Daga Bamboo Mug
1 Norwegian Cruise Lines Surfer Mug (may not really be Tiki)

Got it off Ebay. I've had the dinner menu for a couple of years, so I was glad to get the set.

What's missing here??? No Mystery Drink! Anybody know why? This is copyright 1957

The Swank Pad Broadcast - If it's Swank...

[ Edited by: Swanky 2005-10-28 06:34 ]

Silverline, I've heard those called Benihana Mugs 'cause the Benihana Steakhouse chain used many like them. I used to have several that I picked up for a quarter or fifty cents, but my wife gave them to my Mother-in-Law since she liked them.

Hey Slacks, Now I know why I didnt find anything at the Calgary Sally ann when I was there on Wednesday - you got it all! I was at the one by the Best Western (where I was staying) on McCleod Trail.

Somebody please fill me in on the whole Tiki Leilani thing. I bought a box of one dozen Tiki Leilani mugs at a "flea market" in South Dakota. They look like new condition...I got them cheap cheap cheap to let my teens use for summer parties, but maybe they are worth more than I thought? The original label is still on the box, it reads "sales promotion material...Sikeston Ceramics, Inc. Mayfield, Kentucky..." It was originally shipped to a Liquor store in Rapid City. Any info would thrill me! Thanks, Shannlei

If I were on the Antiques Roadshow, I would advise you to insure these precious items for between 1 and 2 dollars each. In other words... don't bother selling, it's not worth your time! However, you bought them for a good reason - to have fun with them!

Who knows, one day they may be worth a lot... in 2089!

shannlei-

Perfect find and perfect purpose! They're about the most common (so not worth big bucks) and yet greatest little mugs! They were, as you saw, used as promotional giveaways for many years, thus their ubiquitousness. BUT - they're great and they're vintage! I buy all I can if they're cheap and use them with my guests. That way, they are drinking out of a real, vintage mug, but if they drop it, I won't cry! Congrats on a nice little find :)

F

Tikifish,

Why you not calling when you come to town? It makes me and the Baby Jesus cry.

Thanks for your valuable tiki wisdom...even if my mugs are not so valuable. My kids are now happily sipping from tiki leilanis. Shannlei

my recent finds. a wood carved ku-ish tiki (3.99) and a mean looking "genuine haupa wood" (2.99 missing spears)

ceramic tiki, home made i think, from the scrawls on the bottom. its 12.5" high ~ and has a few paint splatters on it, but heck it was cheap!

i thought the tiki looked familiar, so i took side by side pix of the infamous Tiki Trader (which cost a bunch, and is 10.5" high, and has a nicer glaze) next to my 5.00 find (which has better mana)

In 1982 my parents took me to Hawaii to see Don Ho and he brought me up on stage. While he was singing "Tiny Bubbles" he gave me a mini Don Ho doll made of rubber. It's head screws off and you can blow bubbles out of it. I remembered a few years ago that I had this and after endless hours of digging thru boxes in my parents garage I found it!!!!!

Recent finds around Portland Maine.
An Orchids of Hawaii R-6 from Goodwill for $1. A strange tiki statuette from Mardens Surplus and Salvage for 59 cents. And two brandy snifters ($1 each from Goodwill) that say "Paradise Cove, Hawaii" and have tikis on the glass. See detail below.

--SBiM

Ahh... Paradise Cove! Someday I'll post pictures. Ouch.
I love the Don Ho/Eric Estrada bubbler Glamourkitten.
Aloha,
:tiki:

Well I went to an estate sale yesterday to buy a 77 Buick. I went and looked at it and figured if it was cheap I would buy it. Anyway I didn't get the car but for some reason I figured this place would be good. Probably because it was a 60s rancher with a old green buick. My kind of people. Anyway the first thing I spot was this box of swizzel sticks. Has to be 200 of them. they are from all over the world. I found out from the guys son that he traveled the world in the 60s through 1972. There are some great sticks from the Castaways in vegas, and castaways wreck bar abd tahitian bar,trader vics & trader franks, Outrigger hotels, Cool vegas like Harras and the dunes. Playboy club etc. Really cool airline ones too.
In another box was this Trader Vics green mug with Trader Vics Hawaii on it. I Can't find this one in the books. Is it Rare? Two perfect trader Vic match packs from Hawaii. 4 other generic tiki mugs, only two shown the others are the same. A tiki ash tray. It has a chip but still cool. Got two boxes of post cards from all over the world as well. All in all a good day and didn't spend much money. Scott

http://community.webshots.com/user/bkautorama

I'm on a 2-week business trip to Boulder, CO and this weekend I went mug-hunting in Colorado Springs. I scored 5 mugs, which is more than I've ever found in a single place, and passed up a whole bunch of other tiki-related items (masks, s&p shakers, etc.) that I simply didn't have room to take back home with me. I don't have a good digital camera on hand, but I snapped a few low-quality pics and put them online:

Trader Vic's Coffee Grog mug
Speckled Trader Vic's Fog Cutter mug (marked "ugly womon vase" on the price tag...:D)
Paul Marshall wooden mug with handle
An unmarked 3-faced bucket mug

But the most unusual (and cool) mug I found was this Shriner head which came from a local lodge and was dated 1972. I'd never seen anything like this before, so it was pretty exciting!

Slacks, I was with client. No time for shenanigans - meetings all day, then researching competing restaurants until midnight! One day I will come to Calgary and have a free night... one day!

In another box was this Trader Vics green mug with Trader Vics Hawaii on it. I Can't find this one in the books. Is it Rare?

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-15 15:18 ]

Friends talked me into going with them to a small little town that used to be great for 50's vintage stuff.
We were shocked to see that most of the shops had closed. I did however find these few items. The plate which is marked Pacific was a buck, the Kon tiki S.& P. were 2 bucks and the bamboo/jar candle things were free. They guy was getting ready to toss them when I asked if I could have them. Missing one candle jar...


Then we decided to take a different way home and had just enough time to stop into a little shop in the town that I spent just about every weekend this summer camping. I walked in and looked up, and there he was hanging from a rafter. He was marked down to $25. He really crudely carved, 26" tall and 13" wide. He weighs 18 lbs.


And this fellow I found last Monday at my local thrift store for $5.

Sorry folks, but once again I've found stuff and have no idea what the hell it is. We were hunting in small towns in south Missouri over the weekend and I found these two for $.50 each. Both are thin and lightweight with good glazes; don't seem home-made to me, but have NO markings or labels anywhere. The multi-colored glazed one is fairly large and would probably hold around 18oz. It has two different faces on either side. The little black one might hold 8oz. The black one especially strikes me being "something," but who knows.

Wonder why I always find the "WTF" mugs?

Great little finds silverline!

I love the bottom one, it has skull feel to it. It's one of my mug grails actually.

The top one I have in the shorter, home made version.

Enjoy them!

Finds from last weekend:

THE GOOD,

THE BAD,

AND THE UGLY.

And they're all welcome here!

On 2005-10-30 05:44, tikicar wrote:

In another box was this Trader Vics green mug with Trader Vics Hawaii on it. I Can't find this one in the books. Is it Rare?

Tikicar - You've found one of those great unique, primitive mugs from the Trader Vic's in Waikiki as filslash stated. That mug was used to serve the "Octopus". Here's a photo of the drink menu, showing all the bizarre mugs in that line:

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2005-10-31 22:54 ]

Thanks for posting that Sabu!
I see that my little two faced mugs may have been used at a TVs!

I assumed it was home made because it has 'KU' written on the bottom, I'm enthused to find that they may have held hot buttered rums!

Thanks Sabu: I am pretty new at the mug thing. Just a lucky score on my part. Even in pennsylvania we get lucky sometimes. Thanks again for posting the menu. Scott

In New England, this is called 'hitting the motherlode'. Thanks to Puritans and the Tiki Taliban, you can look a long time and not find nothin'. 4 Tumblers are like new and have palm trees, hula gals and guy playin' uke--$4. T.V. S&P set in rotten mud color--$4. Solitary S. Crane Salt shaker was $1. R-71 was $1.50 but there's a crack in back (visible) so it's perfect for diplay. Big tiki face is pine, eyes are plastic or glass beads. It's about 6 inches deep so it can stand up. No idea of origin--$5.

October Tiki finds -- Now 100% owl free!

Daga mug from Pat's at Punaluu (Oahu), smaller version of same from Maui Lu Luau, the Harvey's Sneaky Tiki and Orchids R-72 Moai are Random Acts of Tiki, the little pick holder in front is a miniature, handle-less version of a Quon Quon(?) mug, Trader Vic's s&p.

pineapple s&p, pineapple pick holder, i know we see a lot of mugs mislabeled as vases, but I think the large pineapple at the back actually is a vase and not a mug, the PMP coconut up front is from a mug swap with Sabu, the Daga coconut at back is from the New Otani.

Found these two Coco Joe's wall plaques yesterday at Goodwill. They have $6.95 Woolworth pricetags on the back (I paid more than that).

here is a New Guinea mask I found. Does anyone know how to tell the age of these? It feels like it has real hair for the beard. Also it has a real bone through the nose and a sand or clay mixture was used to glue the shells on. It looks old

Aloha TC'ers!

Here are my latest finds. These were almost all found in the wild. I am going hunting tomorrow, so hopefully I will have more to post then. :)

From left to right:
Black Peanut Mug - Moonraker, Pacifica CA
Pele Mug - Islander, Stockton
Skull Mug
TV coconut 1951-1981 anniversary version
Planter Mug - Islander, Stockton
Tepco - TV Bowl
Harvey's Bowl
Mark Thomas Outrigger Moai
PMP Belly Ache mug

Matson Menu Lines - they were framed when I bought them, so I am not sure what cruises they are from or if they are blank

Chiam - God of Longevity mug
Hong Kong Bar - Century Plaza Hotel
Holiday Inn - Financial District - Chinatown SF
Imperial Palace - SF

Mabel Rollins Harris pinup girl

[ Edited by: Cool Manchu 2005-11-05 22:49 ]

oddly enough, i just sold a don the beachcombers rumbarrel about a week ago on ebay...yesterday i found another one at the same store I found the first, but this one is in even better condition......

Yesterday we took a trip to the Kowloon to meet up with other New Englanders (see thread in the events forum) and we were all given Kowloon S&P shakers and pinapple sugar bowls. I also stopped at a Goodwill in Portsmouth on the way down and found these other items. The island girl mug is kind of interesting, and if anyone knows anything about it, I would love to know where it might have come from.

--SBiM

Not much luck lately. Not winning on ebay, not finding much locally. I just found out a couple weeks ago that employees of my favorite antique mall are putting nice tiki pieces aside for some guy. :x

A couple of weeks ago I went to Goodwill on Hwy 17-92 and found this cannibal tiki:

I grabbed it up real quick but didn't find anything else. At the cash register I ask "Do you get many wood carvings like this?" The cashier responded that they typically don't but today they put out several.

I replied, "You mean those wooden elephants?"

"No, little carved guys like this one. I put five or six out myself just a little while ago." :(

Ack! That made me feel sick. I probably just missed them! I figure, as cannibal tikis usually come in threes, that there were probably the other two cannibals and maybe a couple other pieces as well. I'm guessing this guy was left behind because of the crack along side the head of the lower tiki. He was only $2, so I can't believe someone left him behind and broke up the set.

I found this piece from PNG yesterday:

Also found these two postcards:

The Royal Hawaiian was in Daytona.

Anyone see any shifty ebayers selling two cannibal tikis let me know so I can reunite the family. :D

I was googling up some stuff on the Asaro mudmen of PNG and found this pic which cracked me up. Thought I'd share.

I finally got around to photographing my only cool (old) tiki find of recent months.

Nice tikijackalope,
That one's worth the wait.
Aloha,
:tiki:

This past wednesday I traded some items with a local collector. Here are some of the things I was very happy to add to my collection. The Hawaiian Village was a tiki bar in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Went to the flea market today.

Warehouse Restaurant barrel mug. Trader Vics S&Ps. HIP Hula girl.

My friend got this very cool Polynesian guy lamp with metal shade.

Tiki with boobs. One of those things the Tahitian dancers shake rattle and roll. A black OMC mug.

On 2005-11-19 17:32, Kono wrote:
One of those things the Tahitian dancers shake rattle and roll.

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-15 15:21 ]

The last 3 weeks:

Kona Coffee Mill mug (plastic). The other two I found two days apart at different thrift stores.

Small (8") Treasure Craft pair.

A couple of tourist pieces from the south seas.

This one is from the Solomon Isles and has inlaid mother of pearl.

This one is marked "vanu eta". It's stone or clay and very heavy.

The piece from the Solomon Islands is a canoe prow. These were attached to the front of war canoes to ward off evil sea spirits. Nice finds!

Oh MAN have I been lucky! After a long dry spell and equally unproductive week deer hunting, we decided to try some mug hunting last weekend. Found an ad in the paper for a garage sale featuring "head vases" and had to check it out. Bought this concave-bottom Mr. Bali Hai for $5.00! Yeah, he's damaged, but I think the broken nose-bone adds character.

Same sale netted these two as well. I think I like photographing this stuff almost as much as I like finding it!

Then, later that same day, my wife spotted this Diamond Head mug at an antique mall; marked "Art Deco vase." I grabbed it and quickly paid the $9.95 for it! What a weekend!!

I love that Lamp Kono! If I remember right you have a couple of real nice lamps? I have quite a lamp collection from the 50's and 60's, but so far none that are Hawaiian or tiki. ( I've made a couple myself, but don't count those) I'm putting on a full court press this winter to come up with a nice tropical type lamp.

Sweet Daddy Tiki, I have a figurehead very close in appearance to yours. They are called TOTO IUS (Nguzu Nguzu) and were place just above to the waterline on the war canoes. Here is a pretty good site where you can read more http://www.tribalarts.com/feature/solomon/

You see things and say, Why? But I dream things that never were, and say, Why not!

[ Edited by: exotica59 2005-11-21 07:47 ]

Great photos silverline! I just got one of those 'art deco vases' on eBay. hee hee!

Aloha 'Ohana!

Here are my latest finds

Trader Vic's Coffee Grog
Imperial Palace - San Francisco - Bowl?
OMC Kabuki Mask mug
Unmarked thin tall coconut mug
2 Kuo Wah - Gil Sen Gung - God of Longevity mugs
Unmarked bowl
Mark Thomas Outrigger mug (just found another, but couldn't pass on the price for this one...:) )
Tiki Lelani - Fresno - Brown Moai

So while I was evacuated to alternate location I thought I would scrounge around for some finds and came up with the following:

Marquesan with markings on the bottom "Made in Society Islands France". Big hole on top no idea what is for.

Nice Ku like carving (here's a side view)

Salt pepper shakers 2 sets (tiki man and something else)

Big shot glasses

The salt and pepper shakers that are not the regular men that we see are sometimes labeled as tiki. I don't think they are but they go great with my Westwood toothpick holder.

I ran out of places to look for items.