latour of hawaii

Does anyone have any info on this place? Or is it a place? Maybe just a manufacturer? I was in a store the other day, and they had these red and green (i think those were the colors) pagoda shaped tiki mugs. On the bottom, it said "Latour of Hawaii". I didn't pick them up because they almost looked too common, and at $25 a piece, they seemed pretty expensive. I didn't want to buy them only to find out they are a dime a dozen. After searching on ooga-mooga, the only Latour mug I could find was a blue bowl. I can't find any other examples of these mugs. Anybody have any info?

Tikis shaped like Pagodas? Or mugs shaped like Pagodas. So is Latour a Tiki mug manufacturer? :wink:

Yes, yes, yes.... mugs shaped like pagodas. The tops come off and there is a straw hole in them.

Here's the Latour pagoda:

I have two; both are hand-marked "Ilikai" with the Latour "LT" logo.

I've asked many people about Latour, but found out very little. I believe Latour was (or is) a woman, and produced a number of different mugs, mostly for the Ilikai hotel. I have a green coconut, a scorpion bowl, and two mugs similar to the Daga two-face and hourglass tiki mugs. I'll try to post photographs of my other mugs later. That's all I know - Freddie may be able to provide more details.

I think Latour falls into the very rare but not recongnized, therefore not collected, category of tiki collectables.

If I saw these pagoda mugs at a store for $25, I would definitely buy them.

Hmmm... I guess I may have to go see if they are still there!

On 2008-08-02 16:43, Koolau wrote:
That's all I know - Freddie may be able to provide more details.

Aloha Koolau! Funny you should ask about that maker, last Sunday, the girl from The Hunter,in Kailua, was asking me about that company...some one there had found two Tiki mugs from there and also a Tall, Don the Beachcomber mug and was wondering what to sell them for. You might want to call or drop by...might still be there!

Freddie

I finally bought the mugs! I couldn't believe they were still there. I hadn't had time to go by that place. They had about 10 of them, but only 3 of them didn't have a chip. So I bought the 3 good ones. I'll give one to my brother.. the other may be destined for ebay or a trade.

Here is some new information a friend dug up on the mysterious LaTour, maker of those excellent Ilikai and Honolulu Trader Vic's mugs and bowls. It seems LaTour Hawaii was, as many have suspected, a one-person business run by Wilma K. LaTour (1909-2004), who also went by "Wili" and was originally from Pratt, Kansas. By 1951 she was living in Kailua, Hawaii with her husband, Remy Latour, who worked for the Dohrmann Hotel Supply Company and joined the Oahu Hotel and Restaurant Supply Company in 1958, hence the Ilikai and Trader Vic's connections.

Wilma and Remy LaTour were apparently well known Honolulu society types. According to this 1950 photo, Wilma LaTour (shown standing, fifth from the right) was a member of the Credit Women's Breakfast Club of Hawaii:

A May 7, 1963 article from the Honolulu Advertiser mentions Wilma LaTour's ceramics for sale at cocktail party for the opening of Florence's restaurant in Honolulu.

Wilma LaTour's obituary tells a bit more:

The few LaTour items I have in my collection are among my favorites. It is nice to finally put a name and face to this talented and somewhat mysterious designer of highly sought-after mugs and bowls from Hawaii.

[ Edited by The Professor on 2022-05-16 12:36:16 ]

Thanks for the info. A brown glazed Latour scorpion bowl is one of the very, very few non mass-market items I've found in the wild in our area. It's always nice to get a little history on the finds.