Post #100930 by tikijackalope on Sun, Jul 11, 2004 5:40 AM

I recently obtained some things I've wanted more than any mug and almost as much as any tiki; I bought some vintage lamps when the Aloha restaurant in Springfield MO went out of business. I believe they were all made by Orchids of Hawaii; if anyone sees a different manufacturer here, please let us know.
As with most of Aloha's decor, these came from previous restaurants operated in the Midwest by the owners or friends of theirs. I would love to find out how old they are; the owner said they date back to the 60's through early 70's. I had to have names for them while negotiating with the owner on the phone, so, lacking any catalog references (hint to those of you with such material) I gave them names based on various features. Unless otherwise noted, all lamps are built around a translucent fiberglass cylinder.

This dodecahedron lamp is my favorite; It looks like a diving bell built by a Polynesian Jules Verne.

Those starfish embedded with the bits of blue glass in the windows are probably Crown of Thorns Starfish since they each have twenty-three arms:

I've wanted one of this shape ever since I saw one at Omni Hut that has five-armed starfish in green windows.

I got three kinds of scallop/tapa lamps. The shells are fastened to a hardware cloth shape which is in turn attached to the core cylinder, sometimes with wood spacers. These things are heavy (about 25 lbs).
This is the only model of lamp I have that is not open on the bottom. It has a colored glass panel on the bottom that features a fish (sailfish?):

Scallop disc, 24" diameter:

Covered scallop sphere:

This covered penta fish lamp uses weathered shells with mother of pearl as the opaque parts and colored glass for the fish shapes:

Covered penta seahorse:

I call these hex lamps. They seem to have used the six-windowed design very often with different graphics in the windows, I've seen it at Omni Hut and pictures of it at several restaurants. This model has a face, a pineapple, two fruits, a fish, a seahorse and a palm tree in the various sides:


I have two variations of this one. In the version above, the images are made with bits of colored glass fastened behind clear areas in a blacked-out glass pane. In the version below, the images are formed with colored glass inlaid into cut-out areas in wood panels. I wonder if this represents an earlier generation of manufacture:

Here is the hex design with seahorses:

I got two variations of this covered bamboo cylinder. One has a fiberglass cylinder inside, painted to show a design through the bamboo outer part:

The other has no fiberglass cylinder inside and uses bits of colored glass for the light to shine through. I'm betting its the older variation of the design:

This eight-pointer is similar in design to one in Alnshely's Lagoon Room ( http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3003&forum=1&14 ) Mine lacks the tapa wrapped on the eight arms but contains bamboo cross sections that look nice side-lit:

This one suggests a cage or trap; its 22" tall:

This one appears to be made from a cross section of some sort of plant skeleton, possibly a saguaro cactus. Its the tallest one I bought (27"). Can anyone shed some light on what plant it is made from?

I'm pretty happy about all of this but I've got a lot of cleaning to do. All of the lamps are clean on the sides but some are pretty grungy on top. I really want to be careful with the tapa on the tops of the scallop lamps. I'd rather not replace it; does anyone have experience cleaning tapa?

I'd love it if others could add pics of their lamps to this thread. Perhaps we could get most of the types and variations mapped out. I know Orchids of Hawaii ceased business about ten years ago; but when did they start?______________________________________________

[ Edited by: tikijackalope 2005-12-13 17:00 ]