Tiki Collector and ID Guide Reference Books

I have been collecting mid-century housewares for years and have shelves of collector books relating to patterns and manufacturers of dishware,FireKing,Pyrex,etc. All of them follow the format of showcasing each pattern with a production timeline and perhaps a price guide. I would LOVE to see some reference books that do the same for vintage tiki ceramics and ephemera. I own both the BOT and Tiki Quest and applaud both authors for their awe inspiring photos and descriptive text but I need more information!

To all you experts out there… is the production info just not available because most were manufactured in Asia or am I just a kook that wants to know that a certain mug was only produced between 1956-1957 by OMC and shipped only to the Portland Kon Tiki? I fear that I am just a kook, but are there any more of you out there that share my obsession? Are there any Schiffer Press books in the works that anyone knows about?

No, as far I know, there is no production run information out there. There may be an exception for the American major factories like Imperial glass and a few others that sort of crossed over on occasion like Hoffman, Haeger and McCoy. I don't know if anyone has ever gotten thst info, but it may already be in some book somewhere.

The problems with a tiki mug price guide type of book are A) there is a vast expanse of different mugs and bowls in existense and cataloguing them would be a huge undertaking and B) the life of mug collecting is really about 5 years old at best, more like 3 years old. You can't build a good price on that little info. The prices are always going up and down and often seem to just creep up and up and up.

I would love to see everything cataloged, photgraphed and everything possible noted about the mugs. There have been rumors that such a work is being tackled by Otto or some other person. Duke put a nice dent in the idea. What he says in Tiki Quest is becoming gospel and reference, whether he wanted it that way or not.

All that information is still pretty spotty and will likely remain that way for a long time. If someone had a mind to make that book, they could do it fairly easily though by simply... Well, wait. I don't want to give any ideas. I might make that book!

I think that type of info is very useful to have, not just from a pricing standpoint, but generally because most of us who do collect mugs have mugs with an imprint from some location or another. Run dates might be able to tell us something about defunct tiki temples who's demo dates were questionable. I'm sure there's other good urban archeology uses for that info, as well.

Go for it Swanky! Can I be your research assistant? It will be much more fun than cataloging obsidian flake shards like I did in college years ago!

It doesn't make much sense to have hard copy price and collectors guides any more - there are far too many unknown and variant mugs to commit to ink and paper, and the prices are going up too fast.

I think Ooga Mooga is about 60% of what you're after - most if not all of the main collector mugs are there, with some basic manufacturer and pricing information. What it really needs more obsessive/compulsive contributors to keep the pricing info up to date and add more obscure and variant mugs. Oh, to be Independently Wealthy!

Nonetheless, it's a worthy goal, but why reinvent the wheel? Work within Ooga Mooga.

Ooga-Mooga is a good start. It would be great (hint hint humu humu) if there was more room on each mug to add comments. If anyone can add what they know, it might get more info out there. Moderated of course. That way, if I know a certain mug was used at Kon Tiki Cleveland for example, I can ad dthat in its comments and then it could get put into the mugs permanent info. The knowledge is widely dispersed. Having one place for everyone to put that knowledge is key.

It would also be good if the registration notice on the site stated that all images uploaded became the property of Ooma-Gooma. That way, if I load a picture of a mug and then take it out of my collection, the image stays forever and you have a really good catalog. If it were also required to upload images of a certain dpi, like 300 dpi, then, it would make it easy to turn that entire site into a book one day... That's what I would do.

Like I said, I think a very good reference guide could be made fairly quickly and easily today as opposed to 5 years ago.

We don't need no stinkin' price guide. Let's keep tiki flying beneath the radar of the dealers so we can still find it for cheap on thrift store shelves.

Amen to that! But really...how much longer can it fly under the radar?

I think the cat has been out of the bag for a while now! I agree with everyone about the price guide, in print they are worthless. There are just too many variables; time and location being to me the biggest factors. Being a dealer myself, let me tell you...another book on the scene would hardly make a dent in awareness. A quick trip to Ebay would have told anyone the value of the treasures I have poached out of their spaces!

Sputnik Housewares....Jetset Furnishings from the Atomic Age!

[ Edited by: sputnikmoss 2007-03-16 10:45 ]

I've been toying with the idea of putting together "the collectors guide to Tiki Mugs" but the more I learned about all the mugs out there the more I realized how little I really knew. You can't rely on eBay for knowlege. I think Oooga-Mooga is the best thing going for us Tiki Mug collectors.

I agree that Humu should get the rights to any photo uploaded for the possibility of a book someday. I would be willing to help, but Humu is a graphic designer herself, so maybe my graphic design services wouldn't be needed.

If any of you get serious, be sure to let me know. I've got great ideas for the book and have the design skills to easily put it together.

I may be letting the cat out of the bag here, but I'm pretty certain that Duke and Amy Carter have Tiki Quest 2 in the works right now.
TTFN
DV

Tiki Quest 2 you said?
Ooga-mooga is great.
What about the book "Tiki Mugs : Cult Artifacts Of Polynesian Pop" ?

i think maufacturer's or artist cataloges are a good idea.make it like a tiki mag size/type. of thing. one issue on tiki farm one on munktiki, one on individual artists or a group. seems like a good idea????i'd buy one of each made for sure.what do you think???