Age of Dewar's Bottle?

[mchomin]

Looking for any information regarding the age of this bottle of Dewar's? The seller I purchased it from on eBay indicated that it was bottled for Romano's, a restaurant in Glasgow, in the 1940s. The bottle in sealed with a driven cork and foil seal (with 8-pointed star), and has a number "11" toward the bottom. In addition, the following markings appear on the bottom of the bottle:

G B C

11

C 25 C

Curiously, the font and some of the text appears similar to old bottles of Dewar's "Ne Plus Ultra" (see comparison photos in the following thread).

As always, any help would be greatly appreciated!

[mchomin]

Here are some comparison photos to the Ne Plus Ultra label:

[blenderm]

There's a couple of oddities about the Dewars, the foil capsule wasn't in general use until the 1960's/70's when lead capsules became too expensive, the driven cork went out of fashion and wasn't used after the 1930's and Dewars stopped using NB in their address around that time as well. To have a label without content and strength as well as Bottled in Scotland is against the law so could never have been sold.

All in all it looks very odd, I'd give Dewars in Glasgow an email and check with them.

[wchurst]

mchomin,

Here's some info that might put you at ease on this bottle a bit....

First off, the term "The Very Finest Scotch Whisky of Great Age" was first used after the end of WWII, as government demand for wartime alcohol was easing up on distillers and the general aging of whisky reverted back to the pre-War standards. (Oldest dated reference to this usage, is on UK-market bottles made after 1946-1947....North American-market bottles used the term "Blended Scotch Whisky".)

The "11" marking on your bottle is simply a reference as to the which machine produced the bottle...this is done to ensure quality of production, and quick identification & correction of any machine producing inferior bottles.

I will agree with blenderm on the fact that the "NB" marking was no longer in use by 1930...so that part is a bit unusual to find on your label.

As for the foil-wrapping rather than a lead-wrapping, this is not a big surprise to find in a 'customized' bottling dating to just after WWII...Most distillers had discontinued the lead wrapping by 1943, as lead had been in high demand for the war effort, and was also banned from export by France (a major supplier).

From the point of a restaurant seeking a customized bottling, there is no reason to expect that they would not require a 'wrapping' to differance their bottling as something 'special' during a time when people had recently gotten used to going without...the wrap gives us a certain level of 'assurance' to the contents, and this would be a prominent point in producing a special bottling for higher end customers. Being that lead was still at higher prices, they may have settled for tin-foil as a cost effective alternative that still allowed them to provide the 'assurance' of a wrapping.

The same holds true for the point of the driven cork - Many brands of current wines are sealed with screw-caps, but the same wines are also 'custom bottled' for establishments with tradional cork closures upon request, as this provides a sense of ambiance to the end buyer who may not look kindly on a 'house wine' with a screw-cap.

Personally, I think you probably have a nice late-40's to early-50's bottle ! It would be good to check with the manufacturer on it anyways...there is still the item of the "NB" marking to clariffy, and they also might be able to add detail to the dating of this bottling as well.

Cheers,
Walter C Hurst
wchurst@hotmail.com

[wchurst]

Just as a follow-up here, I did some additional checking on some details and should correct one detail regarding the "Finest Scotch Whisky of Great Age" statement I made before....I do have a dated advertising references from 1929-1964 showing bottles with this description. (See attached)

Additionally, it should be noted that mnay of the pre-1950 Ads show bottles bearing no notation of content volume or alcohol strength...this is particularly true of many Scotch bottles I come across from the 1930's-1940's, as there had been some debating in the UK covernment about how such should be legal measured and labeled. Collectors of bottlings from the period between 1930-1960 will often see a variation (or absecence) of such measurements from their bottles, and often times a measurement in one format during the early 1930's, is replaced by another in the 1940's, then reappears in the 1950's.

What would be considered a "legal requirement" by todays laws, was not to be the case in every span of time...often such changes back & forth, created printing headaches for manufacturers, who simply printed no measurements at all, but later added smaller labels to meet whatever the current legal dictates were in effect at the time of bottling.

Cheers,
Walter C Hurst
wchurst@hotmail.com

[michael]

Great info wchurst!

[mchomin]

Thank you blenderm and thank you very much Walter for your meticulous (as always!) research regarding this bottle. I think I will also contact Dewar's to see if they can provide further insight as to the date/origin of this bottle, and I will be sure to share whatever I find out!

[Jojo]

Originally Posted by mchomin

Thank you blenderm and thank you very much Walter for your meticulous (as always!) research regarding this bottle. I think I will also contact Dewar's to see if they can provide further insight as to the date/origin of this bottle, and I will be sure to share whatever I find out!

As always, thanks to Blenderm and Walter!

mchomn - please keep us posted on your response from Dewar's.