Okolehao Decanter

Aloha!

I just returned from a vacation in rainy Los Angeles where I picked up this very cool Hawaiian war god decanter. I presume that it used to hold Okolehao liqueur, but I have no idea how old it is. The stamp on the bottom is no help, although it claims that the bottle is handcrafted from lava (!?).

Can anyone tell me roughly when this decanter was made?

Mahalo in advance!

Mr. Bali Hai

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai on 2005-01-04 06:17 ]

I got a green three piece set from this company.

http://www.ukulele.com/hawbrew.html

Apparently the black one's are rarer as discussed here:

http://www.tikiroom.net/gallery/misc/abr

Apparently the black one's are rarer as discussed here:

Ah, so 1985 is the year it was made. Thanks! Unfortunately, mine's missing the ashtray and much of the gold has rubbed off the raised lettering. Still a nice find though.

I paid $40 for a black one at a Las Vegas antique mall. I don't think I overpaid. It is a nice piece.

mrbalihai~ i have a mini of this decanter. however mine has a label that says it contained coffee liqueur. hawaiian distilleries must have used this design for several different boozes they made.

I paid $40 for a black one at a Las Vegas antique mall. I don't think I overpaid. It is a nice piece.

Mine was $35, so maybe I got a discount for the missing ashtray...:wink:

I also saw a mini-pineapple decanter that had an okolehao label, but didn't buy it.

[excessive detail warning]

The big black decanter has three variations that I know of. One like the one pictured on tikiroom.net, with the matte black finish. There's one just like that, but with a script "Royal" in gold on his chest above the word "Okolehao". And then there's one more, even rarer as far as I can tell, that's the same size, shape, and heft, but with a rough lava finish rather than the smooth matte finish. All three came with the ashtrays, but are rarely found with those ashtrays. Someone somewhere has a houseful of those darn ashtrays.

-Randy

Marue and Gertz in Hawaii still makes the green reproduction. http://www.hulagift.com/

Someone somewhere has a houseful of those darn ashtrays.

During the earthquake last year, my decanter was the only casualty. I have one of the coveted lonely green ashtrays if anyone is need of one...

FWIW, the green decanters are a little smaller in scale than the black ones, so the ashtrays probably aren't interchangeable. But anyway the green decanters are nice too, sorry to hear yours took a dive stuff-o-rama.

-Randy

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-13 11:38 ]

Just got back from Oahu and my aunty gave me this-

Anyone know the year? The ceramic top stopper is a nice touch.

Nothing like spreading the word to relatives that I am collecting tiki!

Aloha, I do know that the bottle stopper was originally made by Tiki Isle. These are being remade and sold on Ebay, they were first listed as vintage but are not. One give away is the over sized cork. Freddie

Here's my Okolehao collection. Some of these were bought at liquor stores. That real Okolehao was some mighty fine stuff. I laid off the drink mixes, though :) :

Up until the late 90s, it was fruitful to engage in what I would call Liquor Store Archeology. Me, Jeff Berry and Ted Haigh would seek out old looking mom & pop stores and sift through their back shelf bottles, and come up with some cool themed bottles and outdated drink mixes such as the ones below:

Here's a close up of the Heublein glass designs, sort of Papua New Guinea, I think they were made up to the 80s:

BigBro, you got a wealth of pictures, thanks for sharing not bottling them all up. :) This and then your lamp posts last week, those were enlightening to say the least.

On 2007-08-21 02:32, HOUSE OF KU wrote:
Aloha, I do know that the bottle stopper was originally made by Tiki Isle. These are being remade and sold on Ebay, they were first listed as vintage but are not. One give away is the over sized cork. Freddie

Freddie-Did Tiki Isle make them for use on the Okolehao bottles? I believe this stopper is original because my aunty got it from her neighbor many years ago.Also, what is Tiki Isle?
Thanks for the info.

Bigbro- that Dr. Funk bottle is now something I need to get. The design and name are a perfect clash of styles. Thanks for the pics.

Got a large green one (need the stopper), one medium and two small here.

Also have the black ashtray, anyone heve something to trade for it? Green stopper? Or if you have the bottle, do you want to sell or trade for it?

Psycho Tiki D (I know I am and I'm feeling it more it day)!

On 2007-08-21 17:18, Psycho Tiki D wrote:

Got a large green one (need the stopper), one medium and two small here.

I Think that green one came with a set of mugs, I have a few wioth similar styling and say "Okilehao Spirts of Aloha" on the back and "The Ceramics" on the bottom. Truly the drink of the Tiki Gods.

On 2007-08-21 17:47, naugatiki wrote:
I Think that green one came with a set of mugs. I have a few wioth similar styling and say "Okilehao Spirts of Aloha" on the back and "The Ceramics" on the bottom.

......say whaaat ??? :wink:

Here are the mugs:

Soon these items might experience a rise in value as this photo will appear in Tiki Modern :)

Freddie-Did Tiki Isle make them for use on the Okolehao bottles?
Tiki Isle made a bunch of Tiki themed bottle stoppers, sold seperately and in sets with a ceramic base that looks like a tree branch. I believe the Decanter came with a plain cork stopper like the one in Bigbros post.

Since we're talking about Okolehao, here are some related Lava figures. First one Poly-art, next one HIP.

Aloha, Freddie

Very cool! The first Polyart one could have been a promotional item by the Hawaiian Distillers Company, with all that history on it. But then they would have put their name on it, I guess.

Here is the original box for the matte green bottle:

This is the text on the side. Judging by the "Tikis" typeface, the box and bottle could be from the late 70s/early 80s:

No other text, logo or info on the other sides.

To make it clear, this green one and the big heavy black one (which was a numbered edition) were three piece sets: Bottle, ashtray, and the top could be used as a mug:

Here is the label on the back of the green one, I really like their logo of a cartoony King Kamehameha having the last drop out of the still tank:

Does any one have any Hawaiian Distillers ads from any 70s-80s Hawaiian magazines or brochures? I guess there was no "Hawaiian Liquor Industries Monthly" or so :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2007-08-22 09:41 ]

To keep all like objects in the same place...

A little decanter:


The stopper is a cork glued into the ceramic hat.

Buzzy Out!

Okolehao bottle shaped like Maui. Still available at Sally Ann last time I was there.

-Sweet Daddy T.
Because crap doesn't buy itself.

My new blog

[ Edited by: Sweet Daddy Tiki 2007-08-24 08:39 ]

I remember passing up one of these in a thrift store for $8. i thought $8 was too much. I was used to just picking up mugs for $1 or $2 whenever I saw them i didnt know the value of any of them back then. Kicking myself now.

So glad I did a search and found this thread!

I just found thrifting a 1976 issue of Cosmo and picked it up to resell.

I then started flipping through and came upon this ad for those Heublein drinks and was thinking "Man, if only someone had these bottles in their collection"

and of course someone does!
Glad to be able to see a close up of the design.

Know its off the original thread topic but seemed like a good place to post the pics.

[ Edited by: SandraDee 2012-03-01 11:51 ]