Age of bottle White Horse No. 170658

[diabloNL]

Hi All,

I would really love to get some help to determine the age of the following bottle. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Jojo]

Thank you for posting photos! We will see if we can have your bottle of White Horse dated for you. Enjoy Saturday!

[diabloNL]

Thank you Jojo!

[wchurst]

diabloNL,

Interesting bottle you have there, I have had several White Horse bottles with an identicle "Spring-Cap" closure, but never saw that in combination with a silver Foil (Capsule)....nearly all of the ones I've seen have had Gold capsules.

I have only seen the silver Capsule used on Screw-cap closures, most being from the late 1930's to early 1950's, though the Spring-Cap was in use on the White Horse brand since late 1928/1929.

The main label bears the description "The Old Blend Whisky" which was used prior to the 1940's...the the placement of wording "By Appointment to" and "His Majesty the King" is also a in a pre-1940's format.

My best guess to the age of this bottle is that it dates to between 1928 & 1936.

***The one "stickler" in this may be the back label that reads "...under Government Supervision" - This would tend to indicate that the bottle was produced after the start of WWII.

Would be interesting to find out what JoJo uncovers !!!

Cheers,
Walter C Hurst
wchurst@hotmail.com

[diabloNL]

Thank you very much Walter for this information! The bottle is claimed to be more than 100 years old. It came from a 80+ year old lady and she got it from her father who supposingly also had it a very long time. But I think in one of your other posts you said that the spring cap was invented in late 1920's, so it can't be that old.

Would this be drinkable? I would probably drink it but unfortunatly the bottle is owned by my mother who wants to sell it. Maybe I will buy it myself depending on what it is worth. I'm also very curious if Jojo will come up with more information!

[wchurst]

diabloNL,

Definately not 100 years old, and certainly less than 80 years; Bottles of White Horse manufactured back in the early 1920's and before were marked "Mackie & Coy" as distributors, rather then White Horse Distillers LTD.
(See Attached Photo for example of a 1921 label.)

The Spring-cap used on your bottle was indeed invented in the late 1920's, and was patented in the UK in 1928, and remained a popular closure for whisky bottles through the late 1950's.

As for the drinkability this bottle, it should be fine to do so; Though you should understand that whisky does not "age" once bottled, even after 100 years it would still only be an 8 year old whisky.
However, the whisky distilling processes used back at that point in time often rendered whisky that is prefered by many to the whiskies produced today...Hence one reason for the increase in it's value.

As for your mother wishing to sell it, Similar White horse bottles have brought a wide variety of prices at auction of the past few years...
Auction result would depend on the number of similar bottles available at the time of the auction, as well as seller interests at the time:
On average the selling price tends result in about $150-$200 USD to the seller after the auction fees are settled.

As for my own collection, depending on the fill-level of the contents, I would spend about $200-250 for a similar bottle...
(Honestly, I would love to have this one in my collection, simply for the unique capsule version it bears.)

Cheers,
Walter C Hurst
wchurst@hotmail.com

[diabloNL]

Hi Walter. Thanks again for taking the time to provide me with so much information. I understand that the bottle didn't "age" but the idea that you are drinking/tasting something so old really contibutes to the experience! I'm so curious to taste it. I asked for the fill level and they will make a picture but it should be until the middle of the neck or higher.

[wchurst]

Should be an excellant bottle if the fill-level is into the neck :-)

Keep me posted !

Cheers,
Walter C Hurst
wchurst@hotmail.com

[diabloNL]

Here is a picture of the fill level.

[wchurst]

diabloNL,

Very nice fill-level!

I would be very interested in this bottle for my collection...if you ever want to sell it, drop me an email.

Cheers,
Walter C Hurst
wchurst@hotmail.com

[diabloNL]

Hi Walter, I will ask my mother what she wants to do and let you know.

[diabloNL]

Hi Walter,

I have received an answer on my bottle and you are completely correct. It got an estimated date of 1930-1935 and it was also said that this is a less common bottle with the combination you also described.

[Jojo]

Originally Posted by diabloNL

Hi Walter,

I have received an answer on my bottle and you are completely correct. It got an estimated date of 1930-1935 and it was also said that this is a less common bottle with the combination you also described.

Yep, that's correct! The Diageo Archive stated, " Using the photographs you provided, I have dated the bottle. It is from likely from 1930-35, though it is possibly from a few years either side. White Horse bottles varied very little in design for many years and as mentioned on the forum the closure type was typically seen on US bottles, whereas the silver foil appeared on UK bottles (US bottle usually had gold foil)I am not sure if this means the bottle was originally from another market, but from looking through our collection it does appear to be a less common bottle."

And to Walter...Thanks for your valuable expertise!

[diabloNL]

And a lot of thanks to you JoJo for helping me out!

And Walter, I have mentioned you would possibly be interested in the bottle.