Col. Sanders auction, with fried chicken recipe, Nixon letters, nets $300,000

The auction of items from one of the most widely known Kentuckians — Colonel Harland Sanders — generated nearly $300,000 in sales.

More than 500 bidders, both online and in person at the Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville, participated in the Tuesday auction according to a press release from the auction house. 

Sanders founded the company that would become the fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. In 1929, he ran a restaurant with a gas station called Sanders Café in Corbin that was very popular. Gov. Ruby Laffoon made Sanders an official Kentucky Colonel first in 1935. 

In the auction, more than 100 artifacts were sold across 74 lots. Sealed bids are still being accepted for the purchase of the Claudia Sanders Restaurant, Blackwood Hall and associated business assets through midnight on July 31. Sanders opened the restaurant with his wife, Claudia, in 1959 and it was the first KFC headquarters. Blackwood Hall was their residence. 

The top-selling item of the night was Colonel Harland Sanders’ personal handwritten datebook and working planner, which sold for $30,000. He used it throughout 1964 and it includes a page with eleven ingredients and their associated measurements that might or might not be the famous recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Other notable items included: 

• A 1955 certificate commissioned Sanders as a Kentucky Colonel for $23,000 signed by Gov. Lawrence Wetherby. 
• A United States Patent Office Publication for “Process of Producing Fried Chicken Under Pressure” for $10,000
• Pair of framed White House letters to Sanders signed by President Richard Nixon for $5,000
• Sanders’ personal bow tie and suspenders for $8,000