If we’re gonna do it, now’s the time.

“Why the hell don’t we just do it?” Duke asked Amy. “Why don’t we write a book about collecting vintage Tiki?”

Duke and Amy are lifelong Tiki collectors. Their collection spans three and a half decades. They started in the mid-90s when the Revival was still organic. Back then, you had to search for Tiki in the wild. It wasn’t in your pocket. Smartphones and social media had yet to make our lives unbearably immediate, so the quest for Tiki was limited to those willing to do the work. Duke and Amy had been accumulating Tiki artifacts in the greater Chicago area years before Sven’s Book of Tiki set the Revival into overdrive. They read Otto’s Tiki News religiously to compare notes on treasures found by the California crowd. They posted weekly thrift store finds on Hanford and Jennifer’s Tiki Central, the original Tiki internet club. Quickly, their sizeable and notable collection became the envy of any exotic dreamer.

“Why hasn’t someone published a book on collecting Tiki?” This was the question that kept nagging Duke and Amy. If books on Jadeite and Pyrex or Depression Glass existed, why wasn’t there a book on vintage Tiki mugs and other Polynesian Pop artifacts? Given the growing demand for a reference book, Duke and Amy decided to jump in and do it themselves. The timing would be tight. Amy was pregnant with their first child, and the goal was to get it published before they became parents. If they were going to do it, they had to do it now.

The first step was the proposal. Ideas, outlines, chapters, and pictures were sent to half a dozen publishers within weeks. The initial feedback was positive, but every company responded with one disappointing stipulation.

The publishers wanted to turn Duke and Amy’s book into a collectible price guide with a picture of each item and a suggested price. Duke thought that was tacky. First, the publisher would print limited copies of a guide, then create demand, and then quickly publish a second edition with higher prices to increase the value. Agreeing with this caveat would miss the point. Duke wanted the book to be about increasing appreciation for Tiki aesthetic, not Tiki prices.

Sticking to your vision pays off. Duke and Amy had a book ready to print and knew how to make it happen. Stubbornness turned into persistence. They found a printer up in Wisconsin, loaded all the design files onto twenty-plus compact discs (remember how long it took to burn a CD?), and used their personal finances to print. When it hit the press, they had to pull an all-nighter to proof every page. Soon, Duke and Amy were renting a box truck and finding storage space for 10,000 copies of their self-published book. They did it all in under a year before the birth of their son. Moreover, they were ready to sell copies of the book at the inaugural Chicago Exotica Tiki weekender.

Tiki Quest: Collecting the Exotic Past was published in August 2003 by Pegboard Press, Duke and Amy’s new company. More than twenty years later, the book is the first – and still highly-valued – reference guide for Polynesiacs to appreciate the original aesthetic of Tiki mugs, souvenir statues, postcards, matchbooks, “gee-gawks,” and swizzle sticks. According to booksellers, “There are banks and bottles, lighters and lamps, even ashtrays full of aloha.”

I was fortunate to acquire a signed copy when I visited Duke and Amy at their well-known Tabu Tiki home bar. Duke served us his house cocktail, the Tabu Temptation. As I sipped, I spotted one-of-a-kind items from Tiki Quest in the room. At the same time, Duke shared stories about their beautiful wedding at the Kona Kai, his Polynesian Pop paintings (featured in Taboo: The Art of Tiki), articles for Tiki Magazine, and more treasures from their quests, including an original black velvet by Edgar Leeteg, carvings salvaged from the Kona Kai, and airbrush paintings by Gill. As with any great Tiki bar, there was more to take in than my eye could behold. It’s true what they say: Collectors never stop collecting. That’s quickly apparent at the Tabu Tiki.

“Will there be a second edition? A 25th-anniversary edition? ” I had to ask. “Who knows?” replied Amy. “We will be empty-nesters soon. If we are going to do it, now’s the time.”