The KFC founder's signature clip-on bow tie fetched $8,000 and his 1964 personal planner sold for $30,000 at a Tuesday night auction in Shelbyville
Colonel Sanders' signature black bow tie, personal day planner, and more than 100 other artifacts sold Tuesday at a live auction in Shelbyville, Kentucky, while sealed bids for his former home and a restaurant he once owned remain open through Friday.
Sanders' 1964 personal planner drew the highest price of the evening at $30,000, according to the Associated Press. Inside the planner is a handwritten herbs-and-spices list that KFC Corp. went to court in the early 2000s to shield from public view. KFC ultimately withdrew the suit after determining that the listed ingredients bore no resemblance to its closely guarded 11-herb-and-spice formula and appeared to be part of a stuffing recipe instead.
The clip-on black ribbon bow tie that appears on Sanders' image in the KFC logo went for $8,000. "Not a lot of people know; he did wear clip-ons," auctioneer Jonathan Klunk said, according to the Associated Press. A 1955 certificate naming Sanders as an honorary Kentucky Colonel sold for $23,000.
Other items sold Tuesday included an engraved pressure cooker, a cutlery set, Sanders' personal watches, an original cash register, a bust sculpted by his daughter, and his 1966 patent for pressure frying chicken.
The auction was conducted by Bill Menish of The Menish Group. Menish said that Sanders occupies a unique place in culinary history. "Colonel Sanders was the original celebrity chef," he said. "The feedback has been worldwide, so we needed to have an auction that would cater to that worldwide audience." Bidders could participate in person or online.
The artifacts have been held by the Settle family since Tommy and Cherry Settle purchased the property from Colonel and Claudia Sanders on August 1, 1974, according to eXp Realty.
Separately, sealed bids are being accepted through 11:59 p.m. ET on July 31 for Blackwood Hall — Sanders' former 5,000-square-foot home — and the adjacent Claudia Sanders Dinner House, a roughly 25,000-square-foot event and dining venue with capacity for approximately 700 guests, eXp Realty said. Blackwood Hall was built in 1866 and its original garage served as an early headquarters for Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Sanders sold KFC in 1964 to a group of investors but continued as a brand ambassador for the company until his death in 1980.
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