Need Help Identifying These Door Handles - Collecting Tiki

STCB Sabu The Coconut Boy Tiki Socialite Carson, California Joined: Aug 20, 2002 Posts: 2813	STCB Sabu The Coconut Boy Posted posted on Wed, Sep 7, 2005 1:02 PM This will be my main Savage Renewal post for the day because it requires some participation (I hope). I found some Polynesian Restaurant door handles on eBay a few weeks ago. The auction was fairly well hidden because the word "tiki" wasn't used, and the photo was blurry. These factors worked in my favor. Here's the auction photo: I took a chance and bid, but didn't meet the seller's Reserve price. Still, he was flexible with me and eventually sent me the handles for my bid of $56 plus the $27 shipping (these suckers were heavy). The handles arrived on Friday and I was pleased with my purchase: Each handle is bronze, about a foot long and weighs ten lbs. They have a wonderful patina, with the raised areas having been worn smooth from countless hands, and verdigris in the recessed areas. They obviously came from from some old Tiki Temple, but which one? I've e-mailed the seller to see if he knows where they actually came from, (the seller lives in Florida). He might know, because he knew that they were custom made for a restaurant and not mass produced, but I still haven't heard back yet. In the meantime, I took them to Bob and LeRoy at Oceanic Arts. After they told me that I had got a good deal and kindly offered to take them off my hands, their immediate reaction (both of them) was that these looked like Steve Crane Kon Tiki Ports pieces, but they couldn't verify this - just a hunch. They showed me photos of one of the tikis they had carved for a Kon Tiki Ports restaurant and the tiki was definitely in this same form - the kneeling Maori tiki with hands on belly. They were not the suppliers of door handles at the time. The Book of Tiki and my postcard collection are not much help. No closeups of the door handles on any of the restaurants. The BOT does show cylindrical door pulls like these for the Kona Kai restaurants, but without any detail. The Kona Kai also used a Maori Tiki logo. To make matters worse, so did other restaurants, like Sam's Seafood - as can be seen in the pics below from the menu and postcard: Can anyone add any insights as to where these handles might have really come from? I'd love to identify them definitively. Sabu

This will be my main Savage Renewal post for the day because it requires some participation (I hope).

I found some Polynesian Restaurant door handles on eBay a few weeks ago. The auction was fairly well hidden because the word "tiki" wasn't used, and the photo was blurry. These factors worked in my favor. Here's the auction photo:

I took a chance and bid, but didn't meet the seller's Reserve price. Still, he was flexible with me and eventually sent me the handles for my bid of $56 plus the $27 shipping (these suckers were heavy).

The handles arrived on Friday and I was pleased with my purchase:

Each handle is bronze, about a foot long and weighs ten lbs. They have a wonderful patina, with the raised areas having been worn smooth from countless hands, and verdigris in the recessed areas. They obviously came from from some old Tiki Temple, but which one?

I've e-mailed the seller to see if he knows where they actually came from, (the seller lives in Florida). He might know, because he knew that they were custom made for a restaurant and not mass produced, but I still haven't heard back yet. In the meantime, I took them to Bob and LeRoy at Oceanic Arts. After they told me that I had got a good deal and kindly offered to take them off my hands, their immediate reaction (both of them) was that these looked like Steve Crane Kon Tiki Ports pieces, but they couldn't verify this - just a hunch. They showed me photos of one of the tikis they had carved for a Kon Tiki Ports restaurant and the tiki was definitely in this same form - the kneeling Maori tiki with hands on belly. They were not the suppliers of door handles at the time.

The Book of Tiki and my postcard collection are not much help. No closeups of the door handles on any of the restaurants. The BOT does show cylindrical door pulls like these for the Kona Kai restaurants, but without any detail. The Kona Kai also used a Maori Tiki logo. To make matters worse, so did other restaurants, like Sam's Seafood - as can be seen in the pics below from the menu and postcard:

Can anyone add any insights as to where these handles might have really come from? I'd love to identify them definitively.

Sabu

Post #185068 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Wed, Sep 7, 2005 1:02 PM