[wchurst]

I’ve actually been pondering this bottle since I first saw it, but have held off on posting any commentaries until I could complete some additional research.

First off, the bottle noted from whiskyparadise.com by mchomin is a later example of the bottle listed here by AlanH [The WhiskyParadise bottle appears to be from late-1936 to early-1937, during the period in which Edward VIII abdicated the English throne]. But is still a clear example of the finished “production form” of the same bottle.

The WhiskyParadise bottle is a “spring cap” bottle, and was the adopted closure for all bottles by Haig & Haig from 1930 onward. (1929 & earlier Haig & Haig bottle examples were all driven cork closures, often with a soft-lead capsule.)

***The Kork-n-Seal (“spring cap”) closure was invented in the late 1920’s [Re: British Kork-N-Seal-Agency, Ltd., and Blanch, E. A. April 28, 1928 / UK Patent Application Number: GB19280012519 19280428 ], and was widely in use by bottlers by 1930-1931 on bottles destined for overseas shipment, as a more secure closure during rough seas.

AlanH’s bottle is IMHO consistent with being a “rough up” version meant to demonstrate the look of a new bottle design (*note the rough finish of the glass itself, the closure design, and lack of any production info in the glass itself) which was perhaps meant to give the pouring party a more suitable grip on the bottle in comparison to the 3-sided traditional PINCH bottle. In any case, as an un-finished “prototype” this would have stayed in the production facility, rather than being sent out for distribution, and may have sat there for several years before being “liberated”.

I do agree with AlanH’s assessment on the ownership changes for the company itself, and 1925 would be a reasonable point for estimating it’s earliest possible production date based on the label text of “….owning Haig & Haig, Ltd” (I do find printed materials from 1923 denoting “John Haig & Co”, but there is no notation of the term “…owning Haig & Haig” before 1925.)

As for estimating the latest possible production date, I would have to put forth that the date should be no later than 1929 for 2 distinctive reasons: The first being a review of the neck of the bottle which shows it being of an “improved tooled finish” design that began to disappear in Haig & Haig bottles in 1922 with the Five Star brand, and the second being the usage of the “spring cap” closure on all Haig bottles produced after 1929.
The use of the “improved tooled finish” design would indicate that this bottle would fit in with the 1925-1929 timeframe, though leaning more closely to the beginning of that timeframe.

Cheers,
Walter