A tiny, 5cl bottle of Springbank Scotch single malt whisky distilled in 1919 recently sold for a record £6,440 (around $8,900) through the online auction site Whisky.Auction, making it the most expensive miniature ever sold through that type of platform.
Sukhinder Singh, whisky collector and co-founder of online retailer The Whisky Exchange, sold more than 400 bottles from his collection of whisky miniatures during the latest “miniatures and memorabilia auction” at Whisky.Auction, with the full collection reaching a total amount of £56,732.95 after commission.
Sukhinder gathered this collection of miniatures during the 1980s, ‘90s and 2000s, but recently decided to sell a large proportion of his collection to make room for future purchases. He is keeping one bottle from each distillery to be displayed in a cabinet with the rest of his collection.
“I am extremely pleased that after 40 years of collecting these miniatures they have found their way into other collections around the world,” Sukhinder said in a prepared statement. “Ten miniatures from my collection reached prices of £1,000 or more including the Springbank 1919 which achieved £6,440, breaking the record for the highest price ever paid for a miniature. I am thrilled to see that interest in miniature collecting is at an all-time high as it’s something I fell in love with four decades ago.”
Among the other miniatures sold was a rare 5cl 1940s Glenfiddich Special with box, bottled in the 1940s, which sold for £2,530 … a record price for this particular whisky. A 5cl Macallan Spiral Label from the 1970s sold for £2,185. And a miniature bottle of The Glenlivet 50 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky from The Winchester Collection distilled in 1967 and bottled on June 6th, 2018 sold for £1,552.
“We have seen a wonderful renaissance in the appreciation of rare whisky miniatures,” said Isabel Graham-Yooll, director with Whisky.Auction. “Bidders are willing to pay what seems like a lot of money for tiny bottles of whisky, but it is the opportunity to taste a piece of history … particularly when standard 70cl or 75cl formats have become inaccessible for many enthusiasts to buy.
“Highly rated limited edition whiskies can seem eye-wateringly expensive, but the starting bids for miniatures at Whisky.Auction is just £2 and the market for the oldest and rarest examples is more accessible than ever before.”
Whisky.Auction runs a quarterly miniatures and memorabilia auction, with the next auction due to go live Oct. 17th.
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