Witco Marco Polo Sofas

Chair gone, one sofa fully restored (and now $1200-will post a pic on collecting forum) and the third off to the big cog. Early bird gets the worm! Kia Ora, BK

Member #490

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna 2016-02-01 18:23 ]

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna 2016-02-08 12:51 ]

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna 2016-02-08 13:02 ]

I'll leave these up for two more days then they have to go out to the regular markets. Gotta move'em up the pike.

I'm not a buyer...just want to say "hi" to one of the great carvers of the TC community...Basement Kahuna! Any aspiring
carvers who are not familiar with him should do some homework :)

Hi Basement Kahuna!

After getting a closer look at the fabric today, this is what a wire brush and a vacuum cleaner did, so this fabric is salvageable after a going over and a steam cleaner.

Thanks Conga.. You're 'Killin me! And you're not a bad carver yourself!

It's always nice to read the all-too-infrequent BK post! Congrats on the great find my friend. There's only a few reasons I can't be the lucky new owner....I don't have the space, the money (although that is a great price) or a wife who loves Witco. But if I did, It would be a great road trip to GA and it would rock to get to hang out with you again.
Good luck with the sale. 8FT

Dang - those are wonderful!

I REALLY wish we had the space... we already have the llama...

(...and, on that circle shelf on the wall in the photo, the full miniature Jungle Room,
llama, couches, chairs and all...)

One thing you can say about Witco... it sure does take up plenty of space...

--Pete

Hey Pete!! Any chance U wanna let that llama go to me so U can get the couches from Dave(BK) Wolfe? I can also give U 2 end tables and 2 lamps with matching fur shades.

Sorry Freddie...

I don't think we could ever let the Llama go. The only other one we've ever seen in person
is in the Jungle Room at Graceland, and it was such a fun story the way we ended up with it...

We have quite a bit of Witco (probably 30 or so pieces by now) but it's sort of our prize piece.
It's so weird, and so non-functional (a full-size fifth of booze doesn't even fit in it) but
it's one of the first pieces of Witco we found in the wild, and we absolutely love it.

I'm sure they made more than two of them... hopefully there's still a free-range Witco llama out
there with your name on it!

--Pete

I see your from Chicago. They had one in the back room at the Hala Kahiki before they remodeled. I wanted that piece back then. It was before Stan and Cookie passed. Such wonderful people they were.

Hey Freddie-

Strangely enough, our llama is actually the same one that was at Hala Kahiki!

We'd eyed it for years, but it had a crazy high price on it, and we were
fresh out of college, still living in apartments with lousy furniture from the
Goodwill.

When we finally got real jobs, we had just gotten married and bought our first condo
in Chicago, and suddenly we HAD space and more expendable income... so one night after
a few Scratch Me Lanis, we decided to inquire about the llama again, as we
hadn't in probably 6 years. Jackie and James had just taken over, and were willing
to make a deal (by this time it was buried in the corner under boxes and old beer
signs)and that llama was the first piece of "real" adult furniture we bought - HA!

How ridiculous is it that the first piece of "real adult" furniture we ever bought
was a Witco bar shaped like a Llama that doesn't even properly hold a bottle of booze?
Honestly, I think they were happy to get rid of it and couldn't believe someone
would be crazy enough to haggle over it.

Anyway... we absolutely love it. My wife was pretty sure we'd made a terrible decision,
trying to build our first room of furniture around the llama, but she grew to love him,
too, and our collection of Witco just grew from there.

We're actually not in Chicago anymore - we moved north to Milwaukee and bought an
actual, honest-to-god house back in October. Excitingly, that means we now finally
get to build our home basement bar we've been daydreaming about for years (I'll be
sure to start a thread...)

I guess I need to update my TC profile!

--Pete

Wait a minute - that llama is a BAR?!?

...it IS!

Well...sort of. The shelves are too short to fit much of anything, and there's only one stool
(there's a catalog photo of it in Tiki Modern that shows two stools... Elvis' doesn't have any...)

Sorry for dark photos... it's an dark room!

There's a door in the side...

Llama stool...

Sorry to derail this thread, Basement Kahuna! Back to the Marco Polo sofas and chairs...
Any luck unloading them yet? I'm sure someone will be very stoked to lay hands on one!

We've been collecting Witco for 10+ years, and I've only seen that piece for sale once (and
only in person once, not for sale, at Graceland.)

--Pete

CHAIR gone. Sofas still available for now.

Great find man, if you weren't a 10 hour drive away i'd hop on one of the sofas.

Nice sofas Basement Kahuna.

Are you still carving?
Would be a shame if you did not do some carvings every now and then.
Good to see you back on TC.

Good Luck!!