With the dreadful world events seemingly hitting the fortunes of everything, it is encouraging to see certain disciplines in the world of fine art and antiques not just surviving, but thriving. Many are aware that at the moment, gold, silver, vintage watches, musical instruments and classic cars all have a big following , lesser recognized is the market of vintage alcohol and not least whisky.
The first thing has to be stated is that not every bottle of old blended Scotch is worth a fortune, but some are.
Take this bottle of White Horse 1938 Old Blend whisky, not only rare and of age but which has been stored quite nicely. The top is in tacked, the label is good and the fact it exists at all is a small miracle as what we have is a rarer and rarer bottle.
It falls into a collectable area, it is doubtful (but not impossible) that this would be drunk as it will be purchased as a collectable item similar to a stamp or postcard and displayed as such.
The market for such pieces is growing, with huge interest in the Far East, especially in Japan and Hong Kong who themselves produce some of the finest whisky in the world. Buyers there purchase the finest items with many millions of pounds changing hands for the very best.
Bearing this in mind, we return to our 1938 White Horse bottle, offered for sale at Grantham on October 14th. It had a pre-sale estimate of £200 - £400, we would’ve suggested more had the neck line of been higher, but it still is sought after and highly prized due to its age and name.
There are vast arrays of brewery items or breweriana on the market and many collections are associated with the purchase of the bottles themselves or the many ways certain things are advertised.
The most famous advertising in this field of all is probably the Guinness memorabilia which uses bold pictures and often animals from the world famous toucans, to seals and tortoises to promote this most pleasurable of dark liquids.
Effects and associated items also have high end collectors exchanging vast sums, with corckscrews, decanters and coasters all proving popular.
The array and types of advertising are vast and it is an area we do very well with as the estimate on this far from perfect bottle aptly illustrates. Also, it is not just flavor of the month as many serious collectors exist and there always will be people whom are interested in these most quirky and high end collectables.
We at Golding Young are always free to give guidance and are highly efficient in selling advertising pieces and the bottles themselves, from fine wine to Champagne, vintage whisky and the items used to promote and advertise, we are the go to place with any items you may have.
