Post #714901 by SandraDee on Fri, Apr 25, 2014 1:38 PM

With the recent passing of an amazing collector like Tiki David a topic came up in conversation the other night –
What are we doing as collectors to ensure that when we leave this world the amazing finds we posted about on this forum are well documented for the next people to discover? When we pass away how will anyone know the value of what we have in our collection or what any of it even is and be able to perhaps pass those items along to people that would appreciate them (whether it be by a sale or by gifting)?

Every time I visit a friend who has any sort of tiki collection we inevitably discuss where pieces came from – “Oh that float light? That hung in the entrance of The Stockton Islander” or “These are the doors from the Trader Vic’s in Oakland” “These two carved poles flanked the doors at Don the Beachcomber” and it goes on and on —and as collectors we have that knowledge and the story and this forum to document what we know but we don’t seem to document the pieces themselves.

When Abstractiki sent people pieces of bamboo that were a part of the Stockton Islander he included a hang tag that said as much. In 40 years when someone goes to an estate sale and finds a piece of that bamboo with the hang tag they will be able to Google “Stockton Islander” and be able to figure out that the piece of bamboo in their hand actually IS important and HAS a history—it’s just not another piece of bamboo.

Not to be morbid but think about it. There is years of research on these pages—an item is found—say a carving—its then spotted in postcard, that postcard leads to a matchbook which leads to a menu which leads to a newspaper article and we find out who and why and where these things were located—the trail of tying what items were in what locations is sometimes spread over months or years but once we figure out that a certain item was located in a certain place we really aren’t doing much to make note of it on the actual piece.

When you pass away will someone be able to take a look at all the amazing tiki stuff you have amassed in your lifetime and know it holds value?

I am mostly a mug collector and due to space don’t have room for carvings but the few I do have (mostly by TC artists) I have tags attached saying who made it and when.

Do you have a system for cataloging your collection that goes beyond Tiki Central? Do you have tags attached to pieces that hold importance explaining what those items are/where they are from?

I would be interested to hear others take on this topic or even any suggestions/examples on how you make sure the historical significance of what you own lives on after you do.