# JOHN PEMBERTON "FRENCH WINE COCA" BOTTLE SELLS AT AUCTION FOR $13,750.00



## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 12, 2014)

A man named John Vergo of Albuquerque, New Mexico found a 130 year old John Pemberton "French Wine Coca" bottle (with it's original paper label) at a flea market that he only paid $4.00 for and ended up selling at auction for *$13,750.00*.

Note: Some of the accounts say he paid $5.00 but it was actually $4.00. The bottle is apparently one of only a very few in existence and is considered the best example known with about 90% of it's original label still intact.   


*Read all about it ...*


Newspaper Article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2635308/Is-inspiration-Coca-Cola-Incredibly-rare-130-year-old-Cola-bottle-discovered-bought-5-flea-market.html


Article With Video

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/05/23/what-one-man-bought-at-a-flea-market-for-4-is-worth-thousands/

Auction Article

http://blog.ukauctioneers.com/

Auction Listing

http://historical.ha.com/itm/advertising/soda-items/french-wine-coca-bottle-with-original-paper-labels/a/6114-38223.s

Auction Results ~ May 24, 2014 ~ Bottle Sold For $13,750.00

http://finbotclub.blogspot.com/2014/05/pembertons-french-wine-coca-bot.html


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 12, 2014)

Hey, cowseatmaize I must have double-clicked when I posted this thread - could you please delete the other one along with this request. Thanks Bob


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 12, 2014)

This is an experiment to see if this super-enlarged image of the bottle will post. If so, great. If not, well, it was worth a try ...


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## cowseatmaize (Jun 12, 2014)

Oops, I forgot the buyers premium in the other post. []


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 12, 2014)

cowseatmaize said:
			
		

> Oops, I forgot the buyers premium in the other post. []



 Cows: Thanks for fixing my goof-up. Next time I will wait a little longer before double-clicking. *$11,000.00 + $2,750.00 Buyer's Premium = $13,750.00*


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## cowseatmaize (Jun 12, 2014)

No problem. I've seen a few that I guess the mouse stuck and WHAM, 6 in a row. []I saw that $11k on liveauctioneers but didn't add the 25%.


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## glass man (Jun 12, 2014)

WOW! THANKS FOR POSTING! I live in GEORGIA..the DOC. was raised in te town tht is only 2 miles from my town and I live only a little over 60 miles from ATLANTA..so maybe one day at a local flea market..maybe I too will find one..in't happened in the 40 years I have been collecting bottles..bu have found some pretty rare items in the past..like a promo 45 of DAVID PEEL'S  record "F"..is not a dirty word" [he was a street musician  that JOHN LENNON became friends with]..a LENNON song is on the flip side..a rare single..bought it for 25 cents and though it was pretty scratched up  I still got 85 dollars for it! That sort of thing has happened for me a few times..never anything worth as much as that WINE went for..but was close once..I was  going by a booth when a guy pulled out a bottle I knew was god..didn't know how good till a few years later..only one buyer there..he got it for 8 dollars...I told him he did good and to take it to the upcoming ATLANTA BOTTLE SHOW and ask around..he did and was told it was worth in the $800 range..good for him he didn't stop there...he got in contact with ALAN PETRETTI well known for his book on COKE items..he auctioned the bottle and got $33.000 !! Of course I think he said it was $31,000 or so after all was taken out..I did not know this till two years ago when he came up to me and told me the story...we were at  my local bottle show in ROME GEORGIA..the place where the DOC. was raised. The bottle was a mint hires root beer syrup bottle a variation  Petretti said he ad never seen..  If I had bought it I would have sold it in the 800 dollar range and thought I did great..never knowing it's true value. HEY IT HAPPENS!! JAMIE


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 12, 2014)

glass man: Interesting story - thanks for sharing it. Speaking of Hires Root Beer ... My best find is the paper label bottle pictured below which is from the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. It's the only one like it I have ever seen or heard about. I still have it but not sure what it's true value is.


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## cowseatmaize (Jun 13, 2014)

A good auction house with internet and a lot of publicity is the way to find out value. The corner auctions are a place to get the stuff.Keeping with Coke® I'll go with this.A was the only bidder on 2 lots of cokes, about 40 bottles in all at a local. I went with my gut when I saw the Charles and Diana wedding cokes (Diana had just passed). There were a few others I thought maybe and figured the rest were recycle bin bound. Well, the market was hot for the stuff and I sold the ones I suspected and made about $250 for my $14. ($5X2+20%). Of coarse with the coca wine it could be the sheik was back. Maybe two of them bidding against each other. []


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 13, 2014)

It wouldn't surprise me if the French Coca Wine bottle was purchased by and winds up in the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm trying to find out who purchased it but so far haven't found anything. The auction results show there were six bidders but no names. Be sure and check out this article as well. It's about the Gary Salb 1916 Coca Cola contest bottle made by Graham Glass. It has references and links to this forum including mention of a member named Sodapopbob. http://finbotclub.blogspot.com/2014/02/coca-cola-prototype-bottle.html


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 13, 2014)

P.S. Notice in the 1916 Coca Cola contest bottle article where it says that $500,000.00 has been offered for it.  ???


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## glass man (Jun 13, 2014)

SODAPOPBOB said:
			
		

> glass man: Interesting story - thanks for sharing it. Speaking of Hires Root Beer ... My best find is the paper label bottle pictured below which is from the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. It's the only one like it I have ever seen or heard about. I still have it but not sure what it's true value is.


    MAN SUPER COOL! Maybe you ought to get in touch with  PETRETTI too!!  Have you asked around much about it? Different collectors would be interested in it..of course bottle collectors...Hires collectors and World Fair collectors..man the odds of there being many of these out there I would think would be very slim!!  GREAT ARTICLE TOO BOB!!JAMIE


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 14, 2014)

Jamie / glass man Thanks 
I haven't pursued any personal contacts regarding the Hires bottle but I have tried researching it to no avail. I can't find a picture or reference to one like it anywhere and only know that the Hires Company had a booth at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition along with several stands where they sold their drink by the mug/glass. The neck label reads ...

 "Bottled Expressly For Universal Exposition St. Louis"

I suspect the bottle was available at their booth and not one of the stands, but even that I'm not sure about. It doesn't strike me as the sort of souvenir that an average fairgoer would want to lug around all day and because of this I also suspect that not many of them were sold - but this is all based on speculation with nothing to verify it.

As to how I acquired it, here's the true story ...

About two years ago I attended an antique show in Del Mar, California, and while wandering around spotted the bottle on the top shelf of one of the vendor booths. Even though I'm not a Hires collector, I have seen enough of their items over the years and recognized the label as being extremely old. There wasn't a price tag on the bottle and the first thing the seller said when he saw me examining the it was, "You won't find another one like that." He went on to say he owned the bottle for twenty years and paid $200.00 for it and that in his 30+ years of buying and selling antiques had never seen another one like it. It was then that he drew my attention to the neck label and informed me the St. Louis Exposition was held in 1904 and that the bottle was a sort of souvenir item. He continued by saying the only reason he was even selling the bottle was because he was retiring and getting out of the antique business. When I finally asked what he wanted for the bottle, instead of giving me a price he said for me to make him an offer. Right away I said I wasn't prepared to pay $200.00 for it but if he would consider less that I might be interested. His reply was, "How much less?" So I played along with him, pulled out my wallet, pretended to count how much cash I had, and then said, "All I can afford and have on me is $50.00." His reaction was, "Yeah, I really couldn't take less than the $200.00 I originally paid and probably should ask for more." When I shook my head and started walking away, he said, "Okay, I really shouldn't, but would you go $100.00?" 

After I paid him the $100.00 and had the bottle in my possession, I asked why he had changed his mind about the price, to which he replied, "As I mentioned a minute ago, I'm retiring and after finishing this year's circuit I hope to liquidate every antique I own and be done with it." The last thing he said to me was, "I hope you realize that you got a heck of a deal on that bottle. I also hope you eventually find out more about it than I did."

Footnote:  To those who think the antique dealer was a shyster and coned me into buying the bottle and lied about the $200.00, I can only say had you been there you would have realized, as I did, that if anything, he seemed almost desperate and really needed the money even if it meant selling items for less than he had originally paid for them. But irregardless of that, I feel the bottle is easily worth $200.00 and might even be a rare "sleeper" worth a lot more than $200.00. I'm not saying it's a one-of-a-kind bottle, because I really don't know that to be a fact, but I am saying "it might be."


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## 2find4me (Jun 14, 2014)

Saw this Hires on eBay, very similar label. http://www.ebay.com/itm/EARLY-HIRES-ROOT-BEER-BOTTLE-WITH-ORIGINAL-LABEL-THE-CHARLES-E-HIRES-CO-PA-/321365205040?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ad2dbe030&nma=true&si=i2ScDgXsImy10Dj%252FrAg9urv6fyY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 14, 2014)

2find4me Thanks for the link - Definitely a cool bottle with paper labels in great condition. By the way ... I'm just walking out the door to attend the one-day, annual bottle show in San Diego and taking the Hires bottle with me. I'm hoping one of the members is a Hires expert and can appraise it for me, and will consider trading or selling it if the price is right. I will report back later today or tomorrow and let you know what develops.  Pic from ebay ...


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## SODAPOPBOB (Jun 14, 2014)

I attended the San Diego bottle show this morning, and even though there were hundreds of interesting bottles for sale, I only purchased one. It's a "Yankee Doodle" acl from Escondido, San Diego County and dated, I believe, 1944. It's one of those weird Glass Container, Inc. bottles with the intertwined GS and difficult to date. It's marked on the base with *S GC 4 *so I'm just guessing about the 1944 date. Anyhoo, it's a cool local bottle that's in great shape and one I did not have.

The following is strange but true ... 

I took my 1904 Hires bottle to the shown and was introduced to an elderly gentleman who is at least 70 years old and is said to be one of the top Hires Root Beer collectors in the country who apparently has been collecting Hires for 40+ years and has hundreds of items in his collection. When I showed him the bottle he said he had never seen or heard of one before. His initial reaction indicated he was definitely intrigued with it. It was at that point when things got a little strange. Because he was slightly hard of hearing, he misunderstood me when I said I was only looking for an appraisal, which he incorrectly interpreted as thinking I wanted to sell him the bottle. So instead of getting an appraisal, the next thing I know he was making me an offer to buy it. It took the help of a club member who knew the gentleman personally to finally straighten things out, but because the gentleman had already expressed an offering price, it was too late by that time for him to say the bottle was worth more than his offer. In other words, he offered me $100.00 but naturally couldn't turn around after that by saying it was worth $500.00. Anyway, I declined his offer and afterwards was told by the member who assisted me, and who knew the gentleman personally, that because he had offered me $100.00 for the bottle that I could be assured it was worth at least five times what he had offerer or else he wouldn't have offered the $100.00 in the first place.

Like I said, the whole situation was kind of strange and confusing to say the least. So as near as I can determine, based on the expertise of a collector who I respect, but a collector who also admitted he had never seen a bottle like mine and said he knew little or nothing about it, that it's apparently worth somewhere between about $100.00 and $500.00.

Footnote:

Before leaving the show I approached the gentleman one more time to thank him, and then teased him by saying I would sell the bottle for $300.00 but that he had to decide that very minute because once I left the show, the $300.00 price was off. I was serious, too. Guess what happened next? No, he didn't pay the $300.00 on the spot, but he did ask for my phone number and said "let me think about it." It was then I knew with certainty the bottle was worth at least $400.00 because you could see in his eyes he wanted it more than anything in the world but that he just didn't want to pay the price. (At least not yet)


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