Kimball Sterling auctioning contents of Skoby’s Restaurant, Sept. 6

Rare counter-top cigar lighter, estimate $1,000-$1,500. Kimball Sterling image.

KINGSPORT, Tenn. – It was 1946 when Fred Barger Sr. opened Skoby’s Restaurant at 1001 Konnarock Road in Kingsport, Tennessee. Over the next half-century, it would become a regional landmark, known as much for its unique décor as for its excellent cuisine.

When Fred Sr. passed away in 1971, his son “Pal” took over the restaurant and its operations. “He had a vision and a trained eye for decorating the entire building with the best of the best in antiques, country store items, period lighting and stained glass,” said auctioneer Kimball M. Sterling. “The word ‘reproduction was not in his vocabulary, and he had pickers throughout the area looking for the finest to fill his restaurant’s private rooms, lobbies, and dining rooms.”

Nothing was spared in the search for unusual items. Antiques that suited the motif were purchased throughout the United States. Sterling observed that the country store section held one of the best antique advertising collections in the United States.

In 2005, after many years of operation, Pal Barger donated Skoby’s to Virginia Intermont College with the idea that it might be repurposed as a culinary institute. That concept never eventuated, and now Kimball M. Sterling has been contracted to sell the contents, which include fine antiques, country store items, stained-glass lamps, a carousel horse and the unique decorative accessories from theme rooms (including Asian, trains, nautical, motion picture). Kitchen equipment, tables and chairs, architectural elements and office furniture also will be auctioned. “The building is much like it was the day it was closed,” said Sterling.

The auction will take place on Labor Day Monday, Sept. 6, 2010, under the bigtop at Skoby’s. Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.com.

For additional information on any item in the auction, call Kimball M. Sterling at 423-928-1471 or e-mail kimballsterling@earthlink.net.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.