Witco and PC

A while back ,i asked if anyone knew, or if there were records of how many of any particular piece of Witco were made.I got spanked and told " it's about the art not the rarity or dollar value of a piece.but MY bar is one of only 15 made."
(relax,that was just a friendly zing)

anyway ,now comes this piece

and based on the number of offers and the amounts, i gotta ask, "Is it rare enough to hang on to,and deal with the posible problem of it not being very politicaly correct.(how do you deal with that issue?)put it away in a closet,or let it go?" (laughing, lol) feel free to discuss now.

]

It's an ashtray. It's worthless. You should give it to me.

(that's my answer to everything today).

Hang it on the wall. If we threw every piece of art that was politically incorrect in someones view in the closet the national gallery would be nothing but bare walls. I think your Witco has to be taken for the time frame in which it was made and for what it is. Art. In mho.

It is what it is...

Hang it up and make no apologies.

PTD

On 2008-10-09 15:07, TIKI DAVID wrote:
A while back ,i asked if anyone knew, or if there were records of how many of any particular piece of Witco were made.I got spanked and told " it's about the art not the rarity or dollar value of a piece.but MY bar is one of only 15 made."

Now comes this piece
Is it rare enough to hang on to, and deal with the posible problem of it not being very politicaly correct. How do you deal with that issue.

I don't recall an answer like that, by me or anybody, to a question about edition numbers. That answer, in my mind, would have been given to any direct question about monetary value of a piece (which might or might not be related to its rarity). I do remember posting 1 or 2 pages from a 60s Witco catalog that had the numbers SOLD pencilled in next to the items, with items with very low numbers being crossed out and marked discontinued. Interesting, but not conclusive at all, since it covered a period of less than a year. Witco was selling their product for 12 years, and I have never seen complete records of how many of a particular design were made during that whole period, I don't think they exist. They constantly threw new designs at the consumer and discontinued old ones. There are a few staples that made it through the 60s AND the 70s, but anyone who has collected Witco for a while knows them by now. And these are usually priced by today's desirability, not by how many were ever made (the Witco World for example).

As for that planter, I believe it's an early 70s item, and the unpainted version (Tiki Mod has the painted one next to the Tahitian Bar) is very rare, I've never seen one before. I think it's genius, and its un-PCness is the beauty of it, just like it is with a lot of Tiki stuff. Remember, as I stated in Tiki Mod, back in the 70s, a lot of black guys equally believed that that Witco stuff was the sh*t.

Bill says there is no records of the sales on each item. Although some are more rare than others like Bigbro says due to discontinued items or like the Tahiti bar that were very involved to make and probably not worth the time to make. He tells me every once in a while things that sold really well, like the Witco world or globe not so rare. Or other items like the metal sculptures are pretty rare. Also the two tone blond and dark wood items are rare because they were the last items Witco created before they closed the doors so not many were made.

thank you guys . this kind of info is very helpful to a collector. thank you very much.

I'm not racist at all but when I see unusual black americana at the flea markets I pick it up.
We should not hide our mistakes or we won't learn from them as a growing society. We should show the next generation what we did wrong and learn from it so history does not repeat itself!
Come on, it's still Witco, Hang it up!

i used to have just the head of one....someone cut the planter off of it....and hala kahiki has one...(maybe 2) hanging on their walls complete....no one seems to be offended by those to the best of my knowledge....

That's the ubangi planter.It is super rare!
I spent years trying to find this one (along with a few others I havent found yet.)

Here it is , second from right
in all of its painted glory.

That's the ubangi planter.It is super rare!
I spent years trying to find this one (along with a few others I havent found yet.)

Here it is , second from right
in all of its painted glory.

That's the ubangi planter.It is super rare!
I spent years trying to find this one (along with a few others I havent found yet.)

Here it is , second from right
in all of its painted glory.