The Kahiki selling off Tiki, lights, And other Tropical, Hawaiian decor

The Kahiki outlet store is selling off the rest of their stuff. Mostly lights. That's right, They started selling on 11/15/05 I was there today and they still have about 30 lights. The lights left are mostly orchids of hawaii. They still have 5 of those really cool shell style lights. They do not ship, nor do they take checks. They are closed Sunday/monday. Tuesday/friday 10:00-5:30 Saturday 10:00-2:00 Ask for Cassandra for more info. ( she is really nice and will help you out)Good Luck!

TIKISKIP: Maker of TIKI bar lighting, Let me make one for you.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 04:58 ]

I couldn't make it out there...too far to drive. I heard alot of cool stuff was picked up as well. most if not all the big tikis and such were donated to the zoo for displays...I hear that alot of the lamps are damaged and you have to pick through to find ones in decent shape....I'm suprised that something wasn't posted prior to the sale...alot of tiki folk knew about it, -it's not like it was a suprise....but i guess it was kept under wraps till some of the better stuff was snapped up. maybe folks were too busy rippin' on bdler3 for snappin up all the kahiki stuff that they failed to realize that there was plenty to go around had they left their computer and gone up there to get it, -they would have picked up some cool stuff....now most of it is gone. ...get ready for a wave of overpriced kahiki crap comin' to ebay any minute now....

Your right david alot of the big stuff did go to the zoo. And thats cool because that keeps tiki alive in a public place, for a very long time. I did get lucky and was one of the first there. And I did call/email close friends and tiki heads first. I will say this the lights there now are not in that bad o shape. Plus they have a mint shell lamp, but its huge! If you are close its worth a trip. Plus barry dose not know yet. OOOPS! hi barry, did you hear about the sale. I dont think much will hit ebay. Alot went north to michigan. Hey david, how did you like that Die roten rosen xmas cd?

"Roses are red, these floats are blue, Send me some money and they belong to you"..."TIKISKIP"

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 05:01 ]

it was way cool - thanks!! i owe you some c.d.'s my friend......will try to get those out to you soon.....

Say did they end up putting the two Moai out in front of the outlet? when I was out there for the HRHH the folks at the outlet told me that htey were destined for the front of the building, sans fire tho....

No they have not. But they did put more stuff in the store area. Small tikis, lights. So I guess you did not make it out for the sale.
One of the Moai is in my backyard now.

PeAs and PoRrIdGe HoT, PEaS aNd PoRriDgE CoLd, buy TIKISKIP lights because they look old!

Lights for home and
commercial TIKI bars.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 05:03 ]

Nope, but some of my brothers in columbus did, so I will enjoy vicariously through them..
I also dont have the scratch to spend on it unfortunatly, not with the holidays, and an old car that needs a new starter...
LOL
sides I need to heckle people on the computer :wink:

Luckily my friend Nancy made the trip down and picked up a fairly large and heavy shell lamp for me...Ocean Arts style I think. I really think it is unfortunate that the Tikis were donated to the Zoo as they will probably deteriorate a much faster rate exposed to the elements...just my 2 cents.

Matt

I am just glad that they will be somplace where they can be enjoyed, as opposed to being locked away in a storage unit someplace...
Just think of all the kids that are going to see Tiki for the first time while at the zoo.. you never know where that first exsposure to tiki will lead...

I may not have seen everything the zoo got, But the pile I did see did not have that many tikis. 3 maybe. They did get all of the huge net globe type ligths. You also need to remember that some of the stuff, Lets say walked away. Thats how some of that stuff gets to ebay. And you got to know his sons kept something. But I think the zoo will treat it all well. ie keep it inside. Plus I heard about nancy, she got more than I did. Is she thinking of selling any? If you know osu campus bars of the 80s, then you know of crazy mamas. the owner of crazy mams got a lot of stuff. All of the velvet paintings. with frames! They were by lavisse.

¤(¯*•.(¯•..TIKISKIP..•´¯).•*´¯)¤

Lights for home and
commercial TIKI bars.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 05:04 ]

The Outlet Store did sell some of their lamps on ebay a few months ago. Maybe it was too much trouble to do the same with the rest of the items.

Oooh, the La Visse velvets..see BOT 147...damn, why don't I live in Columbus!

I have spoken to the purchasing manager at the Kahiki 2 days ago. Part of his resposibiliies are to sell off those items. The only thing left are lamps. Everything else went to the zoo. The giant Moais that were in front of the restaurant will be moved to the entrance of the Outlet Store. It was Mr. Tsao's wish to have the decor go to a charitable organization...I guess the zoo was close enough. The Columbus Fraternal Order of Moai were trying to get the decor into the Franklin Park conservatory. They have a South Pacific room with lush tropical plants, waterfalls and bamboo bridges. We thought the decor would fit right in there. But the conservatory wasn't interested. I also found out that the Kahiki people tried to do the same thing and got the same response from Franklin Park. I guess not everyone appreciates the tiki.

but everyone likes pie.

On 2005-12-01 12:27, Tiki Joe wrote:
The Columbus Fraternal Order of Moai were trying to get the decor into the Franklin Park conservatory. They have a South Pacific room with lush tropical plants, waterfalls and bamboo bridges. We thought the decor would fit right in there. But the conservatory wasn't interested. I also found out that the Kahiki people tried to do the same thing and got the same response from Franklin Park. I guess not everyone appreciates the tiki.

Although it's too late for the conservatory to get the Kahiki goods they should still be reminded of their blunder. We need to occasionally contact the Franklin Park Conservatory and say stuff like "Hey, I really enjoyed your South Pacific Room but it needs a few Tikis." or "That South Pacific Room would have been better if it just had some Tikis" or "Gee I sure would visit your fine conservatory more often if that South Pacific room had Tikis" or even "WTF a South Pacific Room but no Tikis!!? What's up with that s#@t?".

Here's their contact info:

Mailing Address:
Franklin Park Conservatory
1777 East Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43203

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 1-800-214-PARK
Fax: (614) 645-5921

Well? What are you waiting for? Get started!

RIP, Kahiki! :( not a big surprise, though...

Hakalugi ~ tiki anarchy! I like it!!!

As someone who has bought a few Orchids of Hawaii lamps in the past, I'm curious as to the range of prices asked by the Kahiki. I can't get there and the last thing I need is another lamp, but I've got to know where to set my envy meter.

I hope someone is documenting this sale with photographs...it'd make a nice ending shot for anyone's future story on the Kahiki, the same way my favorite Rt66 book ends with a pic of the auction of the road signs.

http://www.thelope.blogspot.com

[ Edited by: tikijackalope 2005-12-01 20:44 ]

The lamps are going for $200.

Some are pretty beat up too.

Thanks, Tiki Joe! I'll be curious to see if the influx of long-used lamps into tiki collectordom results in renewed debate as to how to remove years of oil and grease residue from bamboo, tapa, resin and seashells.

I was out there today picking up a couple of lamps for a chicago TC'r and it's getting really picked over now. They have about 3 or 4 HUGE lamps (with bamboo and glass panels with seahorses on them) left. They are about $300. I really wanted one, but not only have we already bought 8 lamps (plus the driftwood birdcage), but they weigh about 50 lbs. We just don't have a room that big (they're 2 feet in diameter).

They also have 2 shell lamps left, several wicker lamps, and 6 seahorse lamps that are really beat up. These are one of the styles that was sold on ebay. Most of them have pieces of bamboo that are fallling off. They could probably be fixed easily as long as you can get one with panels that aren't cracked! These might be had for $100. We bought our lamps for between $150 - 200.

They cleaned up very well and quite easily considering they had 40 years of dust on them. It took me 2 hours to clean all of them. They made the room smell like fried eggrolls and the longer I cleaned the stronger the smell was. I just brushed most of the dust off and used 409 to clean the dust and grease off of the glass panels (the paper towels were orangish brown!). They look practically brand new. I expected the grass matting and the braided trim to start flaking off but none of it did. I think all of the grease preserved it and kept it from getting brittle.

What I want to know is what is Bruce going to do with all of those velvet paintings? I wish we knew him well enough to call him up. He would recognize Jim if he saw him but...it's not like they're friends or anything.

I just posted a couple of Orchids of Hawaii catalog pages - ones that had lamps - at: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=9865&forum=5&10

Sorry I did not get back to some of your questions, But me and the wife were in chicago on a whirlwind tiki tour. Hala kahiki, trader vic's, tiki terrace. Great time!
Tiki Joe you are the cheapest man I know. I was going to sell you a Kahiki light for $40.00 bucks and
you thought that was too high!
I know bruce well and will ask him what he wants to do with the paintings. He was interested in what they were worth, But I don't know if that means he wants to sell any. He collects all things hip. I now wish I had gotten at least one! I will try and post some pic's but I am not good at that stuff.
Glad you and Jim made it out there Sweetbeak had to work hard to convince you to go and then you buy 8 lights.

-:¦:-•:'"":•.-:¦:-•:TIKISKIP:•-:MAKES:-•:TIKI*:•-:LIGHTS:-•:'"":•.-:¦:-*

Lights for home and
commercial TIKI bars.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 05:14 ]

corection, we are like friends or something. just not real close. anyway, if you talk to bruce, mention jimmy from the cheatin dogs. thanks, jimmy.

Did try to get a velvet to Jim and his wife but could not make it happen.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Did you see this! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7729944758&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 Looks like you will see some of this on ebay.

‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›•:TIKISKIP:•:MAKES:•:FLOAT:•:LIGHTS:•‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›

‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›‹(•¿•)›

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 05:17 ]

ouch.

so it looks like the bullsh*t story I tried to tell my wife about driving down there, buying two lamps, selling one on Ebay to pay for the other and make a profit... was true.

if she had only listened to me.

-Z

yeah, I'm glad we bought seven lamps. should have bought a couple more to pay for them. only we couldnt part with them.

Hey guys, please post some pics of the lamps you bought, either here, or over at http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=9865&forum=5&10.

We could have a very impressive data base on those lamps if more of the Kahiki stuff was posted here instead of just on ebay. Unlike the ones I bought last year, the ones from Kahiki might be precisely dated.

Do any of our Kahiki devotees know if the restaurant added or replaced lamps after it opened? That would be good to know in order to date these things.

The one in this auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7729944758&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 provides a varient I hadn't seen.

Theirs is closed at the top where as mine are open. One of mine has thicker supports than the other, is slightly taller and has wood panels with inlaid glass pieces; the other has resin panels with glass bits glued to the inside surfaces.


Regarding the claims in the auction listing, the lamp may have been purchased from from OA (Bob tells me they sold them over the years) but OA didn't make them. Orchids of Hawaii either manufactured them, or had them made in China and imported. Bensons may have done the same, or sold them to OoH who sold them to OA. The farther back you go, the harder it is to figure out who made what, and sold what to whom.

It sure is a nice price appreciation; the most that could have cost Kahiki was $123, based on the wholesale value in 1992, so it was probably a lot less expensive when they bought it.

Incidentally - and I assume most of you know this - Orchids of Hawaii ended its corporate life in the Bronx; I don't think they were ever actually in Hawaii, as implied in the auction listing.

Did anyone notice the paintings in the background of one of the pics on that listing?

http://www.thelope.blogspot.com

[ Edited by: tikijackalope 2005-12-06 03:11 ]

Judging by the condition of the lamps, they might not be that old, from the late 80s or so. I am sure that Michael Tsao was a regular customer of Orchids of Hawaii and regularly replaced older original lamps that had become too grimy or were falling apart.

The real rare lamps are those made by O.A. and the Sea and Jungle shop. You can see them at the Royal Hawaiian in Newport Beach, at the Hanalei Restaurant in San Diego (there used to be more), and the Alibi in Portland has a great selection for example.

This is not to say that these are not cool, anything with resin/glass mosaic work naturally is, and the shell lamps were always a classic, made and sold by all three companies.

The velvet painting (on the right behind the lamp) seems to be Hina Rapa, Leeteg's bestseller. He himself made many copies of it, and later printed copies were sold by Barney Davis' gallery.

I talked to bruce last night, And he said he is thinking of selling some of the paintings. He needs a new car, can't drive a painting to work. Sounds like maybe after christmas. He dose not sell on ebay, plus they are big! shipping would be hard. Will let all know if or when he decides to sell.

•:•:••:•:••:•:••:•:••:•:••:"If you do fine work you will never die":••:•:••:•:••:•:••:•:••:•:•
TIKISKIP

Lights for home and
commercial TIKI bars.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 05:19 ]

Just got this from Capt'nDan

WOW!!!you got 27 lamps from Kahiki? Do you know if they still have alot left?...I might try to get a few if they do. Thanks!!! -Capt'nDan. ___________________________________________________________________________________Yes, I just called the kahiki and they do have lights left. 15? They have 2 shell lamps. And one of those is that huge mint shell lamp! The other ligths are rough. Call the kahiki outlet store for more info.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2005-12-07 10:15 ]

Here are just a few of the lights I got at the sale.

¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸TIKISKIP,Lights,ECT¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸¨•.¸¸

Lights for home and
commercial TIKI bars.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 05:28 ]

What a haul! Frame 1 and 2 are all Orchids made lamps, and the rattan basket lamps in frame 3 and 4 are from O.A., I believe, (except the hexagonal one, that's Orchids too). Frame 5... I dunno...

wow wow wow! those lamps are fantastic!
I've been wondering what to do with my wicker float shaped lamps, now you've given me the idea to put a float inside them!

Great haul, I hope they live a long lit life.

That's just half o' the haul! more to come!

Tikiskip, thanks for posting those! I like info almost as much as stuff. It might interest you to know that Kon Tiki in Tucson, and Omni-Hut in Smyrna have the dodecahedron (twelve pentagonal sides) lamp. Omni Hut's is like yours, with the five-pointed starfish inclusions, and Kon Tiki's has resin panels with fish graphics. I have the same one, but with crown of thorns starfish inclusions.
I've got an old Oceanic Arts catalog I'll post when I get some more web storage space; I think it covers the OA ones you've got.

Omni Hut has the Orchids tiki face lamps as well.

Hey tikijackalope, I would love to see your OA catalog! I agree with you, on the history of the stuff. It makes it alot more fun when you know the origin of all these tiki items. The old stuff has a patina that you just can't fake. It's that hanging in a bar for 40 + years, with the smoke, grime, and that occasional drink that gets thrown in someones face look. Even though they all smell like peanut oil, I think they have good mojo. Also the kahiki still! has the lights you called, dodecahedron. But they are larger than the one I show, And in fairly good shape.

Here is the rest of the kahiki stuff I got at their sale.

Ok one more, sorry.

That is one sweet collection Tikiskip! You are a lucky man.

nice to see you finally got that monkey tiki table lamp you have been pineing for the past few years.....does this mean I'm off the hook now for having to make you one?? LOL...

No, I've had one for years. I want you to make, or Show me how to make copies! I think it is the coolest table lamp out there. I would like to have more. Plus some people have been asking me about them. we could sell them as copies. You can make the mold out of the one I got. If you are worried about the copy right thing, we could cut off one of the ears on ours, and call it the kahiki double headded monkey lamp ah la Davinci. Ok who's in?

In closing I would like to say I had to almost beg people to go to this sale.
Even jumped through hoops to try and help some get Kahiki items that they wanted.
In return I got no thanks and some (the ones I helped the most)talk about me like a dog to this day.
Helped sell the velvets for bruce he made money not I.( Don't say you don't know where this is comming fom)
THIS is why I don't "help" people and spread the word when I know of these sales.

-==--==--==--==-Google "Tiki bar lights" To find TIKISKIP-==--==--==--==-

¦:-·:''"":·.-:¦:-**-:¦:-·:''"":·.-:¦

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-03-13 05:37 ]

Hey, Tikiskip, if there were still lightbulbs in the various lamps, what wattage were they? I've always wondered how bright a conventional lightbulb I can use in mine w/o risking warpage of the fiberglass inner cylanders that many of them use.

60 watts were in mine.

You could put one of those halogen light bulbs in there. They burn much cooler. I put a 100 watt in mine and it's doing just fine.

Matty