Can you help me? I have looked in several Coca-Cola antiques books and have never found these pants. They are from the 1960s. I ordered them from a magazine for my daughter. I do not know the name of the magazine.
— Ethel Dittman, Vancouver, Wash.
Allan Petretti, who conducts a semi-annual auction of Coca-Cola memorabilia in Hackensack, N. J. (201-488-4536) says your pants were part of a set that included a floppy hat and a backpack. Many magazines advertised these items around 1968 and 1969 as a legitimate Coca-Cola promotion.
The pants also were given by the tens of thousands by the Coca-Cola company as premiums and gifts to bottlers and distributors. As a result, the pants are the most common of the clothing set available–so much so, they sell in today’s collectibles market for $10. The much more rare floppy hat sells for $25 and the hard-to-find backpacks, which came in children’s and adult sizes, for $10 to $15, says Petretti.
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The ornamental bisque piece was given to me as a child in the early 1940s by my great-grandmother, who at the time was in her 80s. The piece appears to be from Germany. My great-grandmother was of German descent but lived in California most or all of her life. If this was something she or her family brought from Germany, it must be quite old. As you can see, except for the damage to the coach’s front end, the piece is in remarkably good condition considering its size–about 12 inches wide, 8 inches high, 6 inches deep–and how far it must have traveled. Some of my ancestors arrived in California by covered wagon during the Gold Rush. Is there any chance this could have traveled with them?
— Roberta Richardson, Homewood
There is no way your bisque piece could have traveled to California in a covered wagon because it is an early 20th Century chariot driven by a cupid in a category of taste that is disappearing from favor, says John Hanzel, director of furniture and decorative arts at Chicago auction house Butterfield & Dunning.
“If somebody paid $200 for it, I’d be happy,” Hanzel said. Although the piece is a little better than average in quality, the mentioned damage to the front affects its value.
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