How to date Black & White - Glentauchers Dist. bottle

[WilliamP]

Attached are a few photos. Can anyone help me in dating this bottle? Any and all information is welcome. Considering I am not (yet) a member of this forum could you simply reply to my e-mail address... LEGO9V@optonline.net

Thank You Sincerely,

William Probert
Connecticut, USA

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m460/wprobert/IMG_0274_zpsba85fc8b.jpg

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m460/wprobert/IMG_0273_zpsdb598f3a.jpg

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m460/wprobert/IMG_0270_zps36064c30.jpg

[Jojo]

Thanks for the photos. We will see if we can have your bottle of Black & White dated. :)

[wchurst]

William,

Not sure you got my reply by email yesterday, but I'll repost it here for you!

What you have there is a bottle of Buchanan's Black & White from about 1936-1939,
that was made for the Italian/Spanish market.

The bottle has a rather nice fill-level for it's age, but is in pretty rough condition and
is missing the "shoulder label"....not alot of harm to the value, but it wouldn't sell as
easily for a 'showcase' item. (***Don't clean this bottle if you haven't already - Often
part of the attraction is in the "aged look" itself, just as it is in all antique items, and
the labels at this age are very easily damaged, which would effect it's value.)

As for value, "Black & White" is not as heavily collected a brand as others brands are
(though I have about 30 bottles of this myself), as it was a moderately priced "shelf
brand" back in the 1920-1960's and not that great of a whisky in taste.... However,
I do know that there have been a few similar bottles that have sold at auction in the
past 1-2 years in the UK/Germany that have sold for about $250-$300 (Less 30% in
fees to the auction house, and shipping costs).

Fair "retail" market value on a bottle like this in the US would be about $220-$250,
and would hold the same value in the UK, Italy & Germany. (Though I do know that
there are some "high-end" shops that ask alot more for this...though they rarely sell.)
For a private sale, you should expect to get about $180-$220 for this.

I bought most of my 1930's Black & White bottles for about $125-$150, but I don't
have a single "clear" glass example in my collection at all....those were only made
around the early part of WWII, and meant for the European market. (Everyone else
got dark-green/black glass bottles.)

To a collector that collect's everything in a brand, it's a lovely bottle...maybe not the
bottle for the average collector, but it would fill in the 'gaps' quite well!

Nice find you have there...If you ever think about parting with it, please let me know!


Cheers,
Walter C Hurst
wchurst@hotmail.com

[Jojo]

Thanks Walter as always for your expertise! This is what we found out from Diageo's Archive Department (Black & White's parent company):

Thank you for your enquiry about your Black & White whisky bottle which has been forwarded to me here at the Diageo Archive. Using the photographs you provided, I have dated the bottle. The bottle would have probably have been produced between 1921 and around 1940. The neck label, as mentioned on the whisky.com forum, is missing; the neck label would have contained additional information, such as the royal warrant, which would have allowed us to narrow done the date further. The clear glass is rather unusual, making the bottle less common. The date given to you on the whisky.com forum, 1936-1939, puts your bottle in the later half of the period I mentioned above but this appears correct as your bottle does have a few subtle differences to the 1920s bottles in our collection. I have also found in the past that when he beats me to a bottle dating ‘wchurst’ tends to be fairly spot on with his bottle dates! :)

[wchurst]

Haha - Jojo, I just caught the comment by your Diageo archivist...That just made my whole week :-) Thank you !

Cheers,
Walter C Hurst
wchurst@hotmail.com