Bakers Pure Rye Whiskey 1847

Hi,

I'm a noob here, but several years ago I inherited a bottle from my stepfather which I'd like to know more about.

The label is covered it what looks like scotch tape and reads "Bakers Pure Rye Whiskey" On either side of this is the date, 1847.

It has a cork in it, is nearly full, and I can see a slight bit of sediment in it.

The cork looks tight, and quite old. I've been storing it on it's side.

On the back of the label is another label stating that the bottle was purchased from a woman's estate by a distributor in 1943. ( I will update this thread with the woman's name & the distributor tonight.)

All I know is that Bakers "Jefferson Twp, Somerset County Baker whiskey, which achieved some fame, was made by Henry Baker in Jefferson Township, Somerset County, who built a large distillery sometime after 1813. This would be about as far east as Monongahela whiskey would go. After that you've got only mountains."

Any body able to point me towards information on this?

TIA,

Brian

Its from the estate of Mrs. Henry Walters in New York, 1943 purchased by the Greig, Lawrence & Hoyt Ltd.

I found a link to a book (no longer available) :

William and Henry Walters: the reticent collectors - Google Books Result
William R. Johnston, Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, Md.) - 1999 - Art - 309 pages
Peter Greig discussed the Walters ryes in Catalogue of the Exhibition and Sale of Wines and Spirits from the Estate of Mrs. Henry Walters (New York, 1943), ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=080186040

Also look at this page:

http://www.ellenjaye.com/mval_melvale.htm

In 1931, Henry Walters, the son of world-class art and whiskey collector William T. Walters, passed away, and an almost insignificant portion of the very large estate he left to his wife Sarah was his (and his father's) collection of Maryland Rye whiskey. Accumulated prior to prohibition, the many cases of full bottles had lain in the cellar of their home for decades, and they continued to do so. Mrs. Walters did not drink and was most likely unaware of the existence of these increasingly rare objects. She died in 1943, and they turned up as part of her estate sale, held in November of 1943 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Park Avenue in New York City. In his definitive study on Maryland Rye whiskey for the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore Sun editorialist and author James H. Bready notes that, ".. .of sixty-three lots catalogued and priced by Peter Greig of New York, the final dozen were 982 quarts and fifths of “Maryland Rye Whiskies”—specifically, Baltimore Club, Melvale (case-dated 1887, 1888, 1890, 1891), Orient (label-dated 1890, 1892) and Sherwood (stamped 1911).. .A small 1943 sticker was affixed to the back of each bottle. A few such certified Walters Sale relics, emptied, still turn up in the antiques market"


??? Help me out!

I can take more if needed.

Showing the "goods"

Did you ever uncork and try the Walters estate Rye? I have a bottle of Murdoch's Whiskey (1872) from this same estate sale, and it has been opened but is tightly corked. I'm eager to try it but want to know if stuff that old is poison.