Tiki Central / Collecting Tiki / The Tiki Table Lamp Thread
Post #741688 by Tattoo on Thu, Apr 23, 2015 12:38 PM
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Tattoo
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Thu, Apr 23, 2015 12:38 PM
I was finally able to stop by Oceanic Arts the other day and Bob van Oosten was kind enough to spend quite some time with me. He opened up the archives and took me around the store to show me some of the great history relating to the Tiki table lamps. His generosity in sharing his time and vast knowledge cannot be over stated. I am so grateful that these guys are not only still in business but have made a real effort to preserve their history and… share it!
The ceramic Tiki lamps were sold by The Illuminee Candlelite Mfg. Co. which was a custom lamp manufacturer for hotels and restaurants. As well as resellers like Oceanic Arts who used them when outfitting Polynesian themed restaurants.
The ceramic center Tiki posts were indeed manufactured by Stella Bodey of Spurlin for Illuminee. The Luau based Tiki lamp and the Tahitian Bumatay Tiki lamp were publicly available to other restaurants and not exclusive - as I had originally thought. However, one would imagine that Florian Gabriel (who designed the The Luau) probably commissioned Illuminee to create their lamps. After which illuminee just added them into their public catalog. Interestingly the Model Kona Kai lamps is based on a Toby mug design. Not sure if Stella made that one or not. For that matter, I am not very familiar with the history of Toby Designs. But OA of course also created their own vast line of table lamps.
Since these lamps were custom made, some of them never went beyond the catalog prototype - presumably because it was never ordered. Bob showed me the only existing version of the Menehune Lamp (#1404).
It really is pretty amazing and sad that it never went into full production. Quite large and beautiful. What a center piece that would have made! Also, here is a the Tifa Drum lamp.
Looks like a prototype and not sure if it was ever actually produced. This Tifa drum design with the bird has been an inspiration to many a mugs like the amazing Mai Kai drum mug. OA has a quite a collection of used lamps themselves including a few from their catalog.
You can see the Aku Aku lamp as has been seen in quite a few restaurants.
Here is the Marquesan table lamp that was used and the Tonga Room. And popped up on ebay just last week from a UK seller. I asked Bob if he had sold any of these lamps to a UK restaurant but he did not know. They did a lot of restaurants… And of most interest is this lamp in the corner which is the same lamp as 8'Tiki has.
Below it is a little sign that states the lamp is from Johnny Quong’s in Salt Lake City. How cool is that! Hopefully someone can dig up a picture form Johnny Quong’s with that lamp in it.
Again, i cannot thank Oceanic Arts enough for their time and generosity is sharing their knowledge. It was a lot of fun and I will have to go back soon to help outfit my tiki bar with more great OA products. [ Edited by: Tattoo 2015-04-23 16:44 ] |
