About Lake Art

Based: Carmel, IN
Product Line: Absorbant decorative coasters, trivets and car coasters as well as a complete line of Lake Art products.
Skus: 5,000+

Company History: A Family Effort
Hindostone was founded in 1821 as a manufacturer of whetstones, natural stones that food purveyors, butchers, cooks and merchants used for sharpening knives. When cheaper man-made stones replaced their natural counterparts, Hindostone re-emerged in the 1950’s as a manufacturer of cuticle removers used by professional manicurists.

In 1983, Jay and Sandy Peacock bought the company, which was located in Southern Indiana. Proud new business owners, the two sons brought home evidence of their new acquisition-some unused pieces of sandstone they found in one of the abandoned warehouses. With martini in hand, Jay and Sandy’s father performed a number of “fatherly” quality assurance tests on the sandstone and surmised that it was not durable enough to tile floors or bathtubs. But when he set his drink on one of the pieces and discovered that the stone absorbed the moisture from his martini glass, he urged his sons to start a coaster business using the porous stone. Very shortly thereafter, CoasterStone was born, the first truly absorbant coaster. Inventors of the category, the company later introduced sandstone trivets and now many new products.

In early 2009 Jay joined forces with Kipp Brothers Toys and Novelties (www.kipptoys.com), another family owned business, whose Indiana roots date back to 1880. Kipp Brothers, importers of children’s toys, novelties and gifts was started by Albrecht and Robert Kipp who originally imported giftware and fireworks from Germany. In 1939 the company was purchased by the Levin family from Terre Haute, IN and in 1999 Bob Glenn, former general manager of Kipp Brothers, purchased the company.

Today Kipp Brothers continues national distribution of toys, novelties and gifts along with candy and other custom printed items. All three of Bob’s children work for the company keeping it a “family” tradition. The addition of CoasterStone to the Kipp product mix provides diversity and stability to both divisions.