Post #355919 by TabooDan on Sat, Jan 19, 2008 2:06 AM

**PLEASE NOTE: UPDATED this post to fix pictures and add link to another interesting topic that has a great discovery and conversation about the Tiki Lamp pictured below. Here is the link:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=18090&forum=2&start=15&hilite=the outrigger canada **

Okay, here's a few pictures of some of the items I was lucky to get from the family of one of the owners of the Tropic Isle. (some previously shown)

Like I said before, they were clearing out there fathers house and stumbled across these items in boxes in the garage. The father, who was the manager and one of the owners, kept quite a few things from the restaurant or at least these things didn't make it in to the restaurant and were kept in reserve.

This is what I saw sitting on the floor when I walked into the garage:

You can imagine my SURPRISE when I went from only ever seeing two mugs from this restaurant to cases of different items to be dug through and investigated!! This picture shows 3 boxes of mugs on the left side and you can make out a box of Tiki Lamps on the top right.

This is another picture of the items in the owners garage:

You can see decorative Oriental wooden tiles on the bottom right which were used in the ceiling of the Ming Room at the Tropic Isle.
These tiles are made of 1/4" plywood which has been stained and then individually decorated with a gold paint-like material which is quite thick and breaks off in clumps. It is kind of like a gold colored silicone material.

Immediately behind the ceiling tiles, you can see some Coconut mugs sticking out of their hiding place. There was also alot of restaurant ware like dining plates and glasses in other boxes (which you can see behind the coconuts) but these were strictly items that had generic oriental designs on them and were not marked Tropic Isle or had any logos on them. I did not take these as there were just too many and not specifically marked. The family thought it was best to donate them if I did not want them and I agreed.

I was very surprised that none of the Coconut mugs were broken as they weren't wrapped at all and are very fragile as they are quite thin. The other coconut mug that I have, which I found in the wild, was quite thick and had a much more defined and detailed shape and lines to it (see pictures on 1st page of this topic.)
These mugs were sitting on a shelf in the garage for over 20 years!! Maybe these mugs never made it to the restaurant because of the fragile state? Hard to say.

This next picture is of the boxes after I got them home and put them in my garage:

You can see at the very top of the picture a glass shade box which came from the "Exclusive Candle Corporation" which was a supplier/manufacturer of lighting parts. This box housed white glass shades used in the Tropic Isle's table lamps.
You can also see on the center left side, ornamental brass metal pieces which were a decorative feature used under door handles. You can also see some of the mugs as they were removed from their resting places.

Here's a picture of some Hawaiian Coconut Snow in their original case:

What Tiki Bar wouldn't be complete without good old Coconut Snow for your drinks??!! These were in a separate box that I went through with some other items.

Among the items I picked up were six different mugs (one being a copied Tiki Leilani/Orchids #R-88 style with no markings or restaurant name - in second picture above in bottom box, the others being Orchid of Hawaii R91), a bar mixing tool set, silver colored metal plate with a small pedestal which served "The Tropic Isle's Famous Almond Chicken", a Trophy that the Tropic Isle won for their entry in a parade in the early 1970's (pictures to follow soon), box of pink candles used in the lamps, a 20" brown ceramic Rora Tonga style Tiki statue and a few paper related items.

This is a picture of the previously shown 4 different mugs:

This following picture is of the very cool and very rare table lamps in their old storage box where they had been for the past 20 years:

This photo was taken in the owners garage. There were not many of these and I have not been able to find these lamps in any pictures and have no information on them.
These Tiki lamps have quite a unique style and I, personally, have never seen anything like these before or the same sort of design. I am guessing they were specifically made, maybe locally - not sure, for The Tropic Isle.

And here's a picture of the lamp without the frosted glass shade:

With shade:

Mahalo!!
TabooDan

Edited to repair picture size and add note at top of this post.

[ Edited by: TabooDan 2010-01-16 21:46 ]