By ERIC C. RODENBERG
AntiqueWeek Associate Editor ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. — Perhaps one Coca-Cola collector summed it up best: “We collectors of Coke items are saddened by Schmidt’s closing; but, at the same time, we’re also salivating.”
With that quote, Ken Cottrell, president of the Green County Coca-Cola chapter in Oklahoma, pretty much reflects what thousands of collectors throughout the world are thinking.
The Schmidt Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia drew about 30,000 visitors annually to this small town, about 50 miles south of Louisville. However, the museum closed last month and in September, auctioneer Richard Opfer will conduct the first, of what will probably be several auctions to disperse the museum’s collection.
Within the world of Coca-Cola memorabilia, the Schmidt family’s collection has been aptly compared with the Smithsonian Institution.
The Schmidt family has deep roots with Coca-Cola. In 1901, Frederick Schmidt became only the fifth Coca-Cola bottler in the nation when he opened a plant in Louisville. By 1920, the franchise, which covered much of Kentucky and parts of Southern Indiana, was split into three areas with Luke Schmidt taking over the Elizabethtown operations. Luke’s son, Bill, became the third generation member of the family business. In the 1970s he became a collector when he picked up some memorabilia to decorate the offices at the bottling plant in Elizabethtown.
Larry Schmidt, Bill’s son, became the fourth-generation president when he took over in the mid-1990s. The Schmidts later sold the franchise, but retained the museum.
Bill and his wife Jan spent 40 years scouring the countryside for anything branded with the iconic soft drink logo. For their efforts, they ended up with pieces so rare they don’t even appear at the Coca-Cola Co. museum in Atlanta. Many of the most treasured pieces are from the company’s earliest days in the 1880s.
The collection is valued in the millions and includes such unusual items as the side of a Kentucky barn that once served as a giant Coke advertisement. There’s also an antique Coca-Cola delivery van, turn-of-the-century bottling works, and an onyx and marble soda fountain made in 1893 for the World’s Fair in Chicago.
Even Opfer, who has conducted numerous prominent auctions, admits to being a little taken aback when he first saw the 80,000-piece collection.
“It’s just so overwhelming,” Opfer said. “You can go over it three or four times and not see everything. You’ll be going over a part of it, and see a very significant piece, that you swear was never there before. There are rare things all the way through.”
Helping catalog the business is Allan Petretti, author of Petretti’s Coca-Cola Collectible Price Guide, now in its 12th edition.
“There are things here that Allan will tell you he’s never seen,” Opfer said. “And he wrote the bible on this subject.”
Each item will be cataloged and sold with a commemorative tag explaining its origin and significance. The sale will long have a history of its own among the Coca-Cola crowd, according to Petretti.
“This collection is the best of the best,” Petretti said. “The Schmidts defined collecting. The depth and breadth of their collection is beyond incredible … these (sales) will be events.”
“The collection has become inert,” said Jan Schmidt, “and the way to keep it alive is to pass it on – to give others the opportunity to own and showcase the items they want.”
Larry is helping Opfer select some 800 lots for the first sale.
Although both Schmidt and Opfer say they’re not looking beyond the first auction, they expressed the possibility that two or three auctions may be held for the next several years to evenly disperse the mammoth collection.
“It’s clearly been a bitter-sweet decision,” said 53-year-old Larry, who grew up with the museum. “We want to be very careful and not flood the market with a multitude of items and potentially harm the value of items other collectors have. We’ve already had a lot of interest; we’re feeling the buzz beginning.”
The collection was assessed at $10 million several years ago. He has no idea what his parents paid for most of the items, but believes it was only a fraction of what the pieces are now worth.
“I think the founding fathers of Coca-Cola felt that advertising was the only way to go,” Dennis Bardin, president of the National Coca-Cola Collector’s Club with 2,500 members, said. “They put their name on anything they could find. And it is an American success story. It’s now a universal image.”
Bardin, who is highly familiar with the museum, will be at the September auction; as will Phil Mooney, the director of archives at the Coca-Cola Co. museum.
“Yes, we’ll be following this sale very closely,” he said.
“This is a very high-end collection of Coca-Cola items, not only for quality but also rarity. There are some items in the collection we would love to have. There will be a lot of heated bidding, and I expect we will probably be in there bidding too.”
The Schmidt family has said they will establish a foundation where “the vast majority of the funds from sales will be used for benevolent purposes.”
For more information, call 410-252-5035, or visit www.opferauction.com |
