The 400-strong lot of rare and collectable miniatures opens for bidding on August 15th
Sukhinder Singh, co-founder of The Whiskey Exchange and long-time whisky collector, is to sell a large portion of his miniatures collection. The auction will go live on Whisky.Auction on Sunday, August 15th, consisting of 400 lots comprised mostly of single and blended malt bottles, with some gin, cognac, and rum thrown in for good measure. As you would expect of a collection amassed by a founder of the Whisky Exchange, there are some very rare and no-doubt expensive drams in the sale, including:
- An extremely rare 1940s Glenfiddich Special with box
- The only known example of a miniature bottled by Gordon & Macphail – a 1930s Glen Grant – believed to be the first miniature they ever bottled
- A pair of very old Cardhu sales samples, believed to be the only known examples with a UK label
- Close to 100 beautiful old blended scotch whiskies, mostly bottled in the 1930s & 1940s originally purchased from David Maund, chairman of the UK miniature bottle club for nearly two decades
This is the second time Singh has built up then sold a collection, the first being a monster catalogue of 5000 miniatures that was sold in the early 2000s. While his attention turned to full size bottles, Singh continued to acquire the odd miniature, some of which will appear in this auction.
Sukhinder Singh says of the auction: “There are two types of people who buy miniatures, the collector and the drinker. Miniature collecting has been going on since miniatures began back in the early 1900s. In the early years I remember buying a number of collections from people who had been collecting for over 40 years. What I do like about miniatures is that large collections are easier to display. Each miniature tells a story of the liquid and the distillery… Over the last five or so years as prices for bottles of the rarer single malts have increased, more people are looking at miniatures of the same so they can open and try the liquid. In some cases the miniatures seem to work out cheaper by the measure than buying a large bottle.”
If you are feeling flush and would like to bid on a miniature, or simply watch the prices rise out of morbid curiosity, the auctioneer’s virtual hammer will start banging at 7:30pm on Sunday, August 15th, at Whisky.Auction.