Posted 14 years ago
earlycoke
(21 items)
Some more items from my living room. 1896 syrup urn, strait sided glass and silver holder, and some early trays. The other shot is a close up of the Coca-Cola Chewing Gum fan and the jar with original paper label still intact. The third shot shows the early syrup bottles and the fourth shot is an old country store bread case with some trays and some other odds and ends. I think I enjoy collecting the old store fixtures as much as the coke stuff. Yes my home is unusual, and many people ask how a person can live in a museum, but is is much friendlier than one would think. I have cats that love to leap from case to case and I have raised two children, and the olny thing that has ever been broken was a small pane of glass of one of the floor showcases. Hope you all like. Let me know if you have any questions.
Outstanding. I am with you on the display cases, they contribute immensely to the over all look.
Your home is not unusual at all!
oh, ray. If your collection wasn't as amazing as his, it wouldn't be featured on over 20 differtent collection/ antique websites and newsletters.
Amazing!!Love it all,you have a terrific eye for the best pieces and display them to perfection.Well done!!
amazing collection would love to have every single item lol. i do have a question picture 3 shows your syrup bottles the last one on the right is that the orinigal cap or is it spose to be a glass cap? i think i may have the same bottle, but its missing the cap and part of the label, if you get a chance can you check mine out and tell me what you think of it?
Thank you trevor, most syrup bottles from that time period (or any other period) had the simple metal caps as I have on my bottles. Yours would have been metal as well. There is one variation which I call a "bulbous" cap because the top balloons out. It would have been on the earliest bottle (the one I have in the center). But I cant seem to find one for sale. Caps would have been accidentally interchanged among the other bottles setting on the backbar of the fountain, so it is impossible to say that any bottle has it's original cap.
oh okay thanks earlycoke thats going make it alot easier to find a cap for my bottle now.
I will keep my eye out for one for you as well.
Hello Earlycoke, My son inherited a early hanging coca cola lamp from his grandparents.
My husband's father acquired it when an old soda fountain went out of business in the western suburbs of Chicago. He and his wife used to go there when they were dating in the 1930s. It is all original, nothing is broken. It is stain glass, but not made with flat pieces of glass, the glass is thick and curved. The lamp is solid and heavy. The classic logo wraps around the bottom part of the shade with larger coca cola letters. We have never seen another one, and from what I've seen on line not even the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta has this one. I can provide photo if you are totally stumped. I know of a hanging lamp circa 1920 that recently sold for $24,780, but couldn't find a photo to see if it was the same. If nothing else I could just call the auction house. Anything you could tell us we would so appreciate. I think it is amazing that you provide this service to people and you are willing to share. Thank you for your time. Rebecca
Rebecca, email me with the photo and info at earlycoke@insightbb.com, and I will tell you what I know!
Sorry to butt in, but I'd like to see it too. It has an interesting backround and I would love to see it. 14ipodtouchguy@gmail.com If you could send it to me as well, that would be great. Earlycoke will tell you everything, I just want to see it.
I'm 17 days late, but I would also like to see photos of the lamp your son inherited. Please send to flash03@comcast.net
OK guys. Christmas is coming up so lets have some fun. If you all could have that one special coke item (ignore the cost) what would it be? I will share mine: I think I would like the large stained glass light up bottle that went for 95,000 in the Schmidt auction. What would you want? This should be interestingbecasue we all have such a wide variety of interests.
Thats an easy one Blaine,I would say "your collection"! You already have all the best things a great collection needs. Not sure how Santa can get it all down the chimney, but he better bring those killer display cases also! Lol !!
If thats not available,then all I want is Ray back here!!
Thank you very much Bernie, for the complement. I wish I were Bill Gates and could buy every one their most sought after item!
Ok, speaking of the Schmidt auction, I would've like to have picked up that SWEET
lot 64, a 1903 serving tray with paper label on the bottle 9 3/4" in size and gold trim. That thing sent me over the edge Blaine!
Hey Blaine, did you pickup anything at that auction?
Perry, you have a good eye. That is a RARE, RARE item! No. I knew Bill Schmidt, and even had items on loan to the museum at one time. I felt very close to the museum, knew the history behind many of the items, and visited it often when Bill was alive, and Roy Minagawa was the curator. I can't imagine him ever wanting his items to be sold after his passing. I think he felt it was going to be his legacy. With that said, I couldn't bear to see such a "national" treasure be liquidated for money, so I did not attend in person. I preferred to keep my "good" memories of Bill, our discussions, and the museum as they are in my mind. Does that make sense?
It certainly does Blaine. I never had the opportunity to visit the museum, came close once several years back. I knew I never had a shot at buying one piece at the auction but I did watch it online, strickly as a learning opportunity. He must've been a fine man and dear friend as well. I would imagine that he was hoping it would live on, as you stated. There was obviously years of love and work put into that collection. I have a copy of the auction book that was sent out to those interested. Beautiful collection for sure!
He was a good man, and his wife is a fine person as well. I am sure it was a difficult thing to sell out, and I am sure they have their reasons, but the museum will certainly be missed.
We drove by Elizabethtown today on I-24 and I told my wife that I wished I'd been able to see it before it closed.
I documented it all a couple of times. Email me your address (earlycoke@insightbb.com) and I will send you a CD of photos. It was pretty amazing.
That would be great, thank you for offering this!
To Blaine's question: It's a good one! I haven't collected long enough to know much about individual holy grails or rare artifacts. But I have thought about what it would be like to find an item directly linked to Dr. Pemberton. Something Coca-Cola branded that he owned or handled. I'm not sure that those types of things actually exist. He created Coca-Cola, but sold most of his stake in the company soon thereafter, and really didn't live long after formulating the best drink ever. Blaine, maybe when you have nothing better to do, can you let us know what kinds of things if any exist from earliestcoke?
Dave, my wife Jeannine collects early Pemberton and French Wine Coca items. She has a bottle that is embossed Pemberton's Wine Coca. It was actually on loan to the Schmidt Museum for many years, and it is thought to be the only embossed Pemberton French Wine Coca bottle "known" to have survived. Wine Coca was the precurser to Coca-Cola, and it is very likely that Pemberton may have actually handled the bottle, since they were made up at his home (which also housed his laboratory at that time) in Atlanta. He subsequently sold them for 1 dollar each.
I will take a photo and post tomorrow.
That is way cool,and also that your wife is as into it as you are Blaine!A perfect match!
Yeah, Bernie, I am lucky . . . we are two kooks who were made for each other!
Now THAT is definitely living on the Coke side of life!!! VERY COOL INDEED!!!
Ok, now I'm going to re-catagorize myself as an almost serious Coke collector. Blaine, you and your wife have been very focused and very serious for a long time I would imagine. That's awfully impressive.
Of your whole collection though, I must say your hard to impossible to find cardboard signs are so amazing to see on the wall. After the scrap drives of 41' and 42' and all the trashing of these over the years, it's nothing short of incredible. Your kids are right, it is a museum at your house!
WOW just so BEAUTIFUL.