By Rajwa Quasim
Personal belongings once owned by Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of fast-food chain KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), went up for auction on Tuesday night in Shelbyville. The auction featured 71 items that either belonged to or were associated with Sanders.
The auction was organized by The Menish Group, and included dozens of items associated with Sanders, especially his signature black clip-on bow tie, engraved pressure cooker, watches, cutlery, original cash register, and a 1964 personal planner containing handwritten herbs and spices recipe.
Sanders, whose signature goatee remains closely associated with KFC even today, established the Shelbyville property as the headquarters of his restaurant business in the late 1950s. He later sold the property, along with his home and the adjoining Claudia Sanders Dinner House, to Tommy and Cherry Settle in 1974. The Settle family has operated the restaurant ever since.
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Among the notable items sold at the auction was Sanders’ 1964 personal planner, which fetched $30,000. The planner was once the subject of a lawsuit filed by KFC Corp. in the early 2000s, when the company sought to keep its contents sealed over concerns that it might reveal the chain’s secret recipe. KFC later dropped the lawsuit, saying the recipe did not match its famous blend of 11 herbs and spices.
Other highlights included a certificate naming Sanders an honorary Kentucky Colonel, which sold for $23,000; a bust of Sanders sculpted by his daughter, which brought $4,400; an original cash register from the restaurant, which sold for $5,000; and Sanders’ signature clip-on black ribbon tie, depicted in the KFC logo, which sold for $8,000. Online pre-bidding concluded ahead of a live, in-person auction of the Sanders memorabilia on Tuesday evening.
“Colonel Sanders was the original celebrity chef,” said Bill Menish, whose firm, The Menish Group, conducted the auction. “The feedback has been worldwide, so we needed to have an auction that would cater to that worldwide audience.”
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Commenting on Sanders’ iconic appearance, Menish said, “He didn’t dress like that before he was starting to build Kentucky Fried Chicken. He adopted the colonel: the clothes, the bow tie, the glasses, the goatee.”
Sanders founded KFC after developing his pressure-fried chicken recipe in Kentucky and later franchising the business. He sold KFC in 1964 to a group of investors but continued serving as the brand’s public face and ambassador for years afterward.
Sealed bids for the Claudia Sanders Dinner House and Sanders’ former 5,000-square-foot home, which he named Blackwood Hall, will be accepted through Friday.
Today, KFC has grown into a global fast-food chain with tens of thousands of restaurants worldwide, and Sanders remains one of the world’s most recognizable brand icons.