Coca-Cola's Sundblom Santa

Why was this Haddon Sundblom oil painting cut from its original canvas and repainted? Find out more in a letter from Coca-Cola!

Mar 23, 2015

BY Dylan Hayley Leavitt

Appraisal: Haddon Sundblom Santa Claus Oil & Ad

Transcript

GUEST: I purchased it at a charity art auction in Washington, D.C., in 1991. I do know that it was originally donated by Coca-Cola Company to this charity in 1984. All I know about the painting is that it's an original work by Haddon Sundblom, who painted all of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus paintings from around 1931 through 1965. This painting supposedly was done around 1965.

APPRAISER: Haddon Sundblom, as you point out, very well-known illustrator. Born in 1899, died in 1976. Family was Swedish. They moved to Michigan, where he was born, and at a very early age ended up setting up a firm in Chicago, where he delved into the world of illustration art. From 1931 on, he worked for Coca-Cola, and he created over 40 original paintings, including yours.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It's interesting because we think of Santa Claus, of old St. Nick, and we think of essentially the guy we've got here. But Sundblom took what was an earlier image of Santa Claus, one done by Thomas Nast, who was a great illustrator for Harper's Weekly, which was really depicting Santa almost like an elf, and cheered him up a little bit, gave him a little bit of weight, made his cheeks rosy, gave him a kind of a plump, grandfatherly, trustworthy look. Your painting is an oil on canvas. It's cut out.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: So that the outer edges of the canvas are cut all the way around, and they're laid down to this backing board, which is painted green with a white border. The arm here has been redone.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: So that from the mid-arm upwards, it was redone. Now, why did Coca-Cola say that was done?

GUEST: Well, they indicated that because it had been used in different poses and different purposes that they had modified it.

APPRAISER: Can I ask what did you pay for this painting?

GUEST: I paid $3,100 for it in 1991.

APPRAISER: In doing some checking, the last Sundblom painting of Santa, very similar to this, was offered at auction... and here we are in 2014, we're going back to 2004, a full decade ago. That painting, while a little larger than yours, very similar, sold for about $50,000, a little more.

GUEST: Whoa.

APPRAISER: Yours is a little smaller, it does have a little bit of the condition issues we had talked about earlier. We've got the repainted arm. Nonetheless, we think today, we're talking about an auction estimate of $30,000 to $50,000.

GUEST: Great.

APPRAISER: This, by the way, cute advertisement. Did you pick this up at the same time?

GUEST: No, I picked that up many years later in an antiques shop, actually.

APPRAISER: Very similar image. In today's market, this cut-out advertisement is worth $150 to $200.

GUEST: Very good.

At the May 2014 ANTIQUES ROADSHOW event in Bismarck, North Dakota, the Christmas spirit descended upon the set as a familiarly festive face visited the appraisal table. It was the jolly Coca-Cola Santa Claus, as depicted by well-known illustrator Haddon Sundblom in an oil painting from 1965, one of over 40 paintings he created for Coca-Cola beginning in 1931. The painting was purchased by ROADSHOW guest Gary in 1991 at a Very Special Artists charity auction in Washington, D.C. for $3,100.

Sundblom’s Santa Claus, a grandfatherly, jolly, plump, and rosy-cheeked version of St. Nick, was used in numerous pieces of advertising during the mid-20th century by Coca-Cola. This particular painting, as appraiser David Weiss describes, is cut out from the canvas and laid down on a different green backing board, with no artist signature to be found. He also describes that the arm had been redone. These idiosyncrasies are vestiges from the painting's reuse for different promotional materials, clearly visible in the comparison of the painting to Gary's later purchase of an advertisement, which was also brought to ROADSHOW. The two pieces together, according to Weiss, would fetch an auction value range of $30,150 to $50,200.

In 1991, Gary was curious to find out more about his painting and its use at Coca-Cola, so he inquired with the company about its provenance. Read the response from Coca-Cola below!