KFC Founder Colonel Sanders’ Personal Memorabilia Heads to Auction

Nearly 100 pieces of personal memorabilia connected to KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders will be offered at auction tomorrow, July 28, at the Claudia Sanders Restaurant in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

The collection includes personal artifacts, business records, photographs, clothing, cooking equipment and furnishings that were preserved by the Settle family for more than 50 years. The family purchased Blackwood Hall and the Claudia Sanders Dinner House directly from Colonel Sanders and his wife, Claudia, in 1974, giving the collection a direct and unusually well-documented history.

Among the most important items is Sanders’ engraved pressure cooker, which the auction describes as having been used during the development and refinement of his original fried chicken recipe. The sale also includes the commercial stove from Blackwood Hall where Sanders is said to have worked on his blend of 11 herbs and spices.

Collectors will also be able to bid on Sanders’ handwritten working planner, an original Kentucky Colonel certificate, a gold Masonic ring, a Rado wristwatch, his bow tie and suspenders, a personal briefcase with its contents and correspondence from the White House. Other lots include handwritten recipes, cooking notes, franchise materials, restaurant training artifacts, photographs and furnishings from Blackwood Hall.

The auction is notable because the material was not assembled over time by a memorabilia collector. The artifacts remained with the family that acquired Sanders’ home and restaurant business directly from the couple, creating a chain of ownership that could be particularly attractive to collectors, museums and food-history institutions.

The auction will take place at 3202 Shelbyville Road in Shelbyville. Doors open at 4 PM EDT on Tuesday, July 28, with bidding scheduled to begin at 6 PM. The sale will be conducted live with worldwide online bidding, although remote bidders must register before the auction.

The memorabilia is being offered separately from the historic Claudia Sanders Restaurant and Blackwood Hall properties, which are also available through a sealed-bid sale. That offering includes the operating restaurant business, furniture, equipment, intellectual property, trademark rights and other related assets.

For collectors of advertising, restaurant history and American pop culture, the auction presents a rare opportunity to acquire material tied directly to the man behind one of the world’s most recognizable food brands.