Posted on: Friday, October 1, 2004
Kalihi family's collection to be on national TV
By Zenaida Serrano
Advertiser Staff Writer
The handsome walnut hutch anchored in Suzi and Kevin Coleman's living room houses dozens of treasures that would easily make a Hawaiiana collector's heart skip a beat: a figurine of a hula girl from 1903, Hakata Urasaki dolls of a Hawaiian warrior chief and a woman holding an ipu (gourd), and a Julene ceramic hula dancer, all dating back to the 1950s, to name a few.
Jeff Widener photos • The Honolulu Advertiser • Featuring the Colemans of Kalihi • Home & Garden Television (analog channel 59 and digital channel 323) • 11:30 a.m. today; show airs 11:30 a.m. weekdays "He's into kitschy, kitschy stuff," said Suzi Coleman, 48, who along with her husband, also collect Victorian pieces and microphones dating back to the 1940s.
The hundreds of items amassed by the Kalihi family — which includes daughter Serena — will be featured today on Home & Garden Television's "Collector Inspector," in which Rinker evaluates antiques, collectibles and family heirlooms in homes across the country.
Rinker and crew visited O'ahu in March, stopping at four homes to tape segments for this season, the show's last. The other Hawai'i episodes are scheduled to air in November and December, and will feature:
• Roberta Lutjen, 61, of Hawai'i Kai. The real estate agent acquired nearly 4,000 items from her mother. "It's a little of everything; dolls, plates, glasses," Lutjen said.
Some of the pieces she shared with Rinker were rubber Beatles dolls from 1962, an Abraham Lincoln brass bank, an airplane propeller clock from the 1940s and a 150-year-old oak gentlemen's dresser, which came with the 185-year-old San Francisco Victorian home where Lutjen once lived.
• Dwight and Esmina Roberts of Mililani. This area service manager, 43, and architectural sales representative, 49, respectively, showed off items including Arabian knives, an Arabian window frame and an Italian glass piece. • Holly Lel Hajji, 38, of Manoa. Rinker evaluated this catering business owner's palm-tree lamp from the '20s and a Hobie surfboard from the '60s. Suzi Coleman, an art teacher, also shared with Rinker her cherished floral paintings and prints from the 1940s by artist Ted Mundorff, as well as an original 1975 poster of the Diamond Head Crater Sunshine Festival.
"Hunting for Hawaiiana is very competitive on this island," said Coleman, who frequents collector's shows, swap meets and garage sales for her next prized piece.
Her passion for treasure hunting runs in the family, as her mother and grandmother were also avid collectors, she said.
"It's a lot of work to do this," she said, "but it's a lot of fun."
Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8174.
But expert appraiser Harry Rinker was lured by two scruffed up bobbleheads from the 1950s; the little local boy and girl are charming, with magnetic heads that kiss. Rinker appraised the worn pair at $100.
Suzi Coleman and her husband, Kevin, have a treasure trove of Hawai'i-inspired statues, including a hula girl and bobbleheads.
Home & Garden Television's "Collector Inspector" will air an episode today featuring the treasures of a Kalihi family.
'Collector Inspector'
"I was most shocked about his appraisal of an old menu from Chuck's Original Steak House in Waikiki that I got from my father," she said. Rinker valued the menu at $30 to $40.
Home & Garden Television's "Collector Inspector" will air an episode today featuring the treasures of a Kalihi family.
