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Springbank miniature fetches £6,440 at auction
A 50ml bottle of 1919 Springbank Scotch whisky has set a new record for being the most expensive miniature sold at auction.
The Springbank bottle was sold through online auction site Whisky.Auction as part of a sale of 400 miniatures from The Whisky Exchange co-founder Sukhinder Singh’s collection. The closing price was £6,440 (US$8,827).
The entire collection, built up since the 1980s, sold for £56,732.95 (US$77,763) after commission.
“I am extremely pleased that after 40 years of collecting these miniatures they have found their way into other collections around the world,” said Singh. “Ten miniatures from my collection reached prices of £1,000 or more including the Springbank 1919 which achieved £6,440, breaking the record for the highest price ever paid for a miniature.
“I am thrilled to see that interest in miniature collecting is at an all-time high as it’s something I fell in love with four decades ago.”
Other notable lots included a rare 50ml 1940s Glenfiddich Special with its box, which sold for sold for £2,530 (US$3,468) – achieving a new record for this particular whisky.
A 50ml Macallan Spiral Label from the 1970s sold for £2,185 (US$2,995), while a miniature bottle of The Glenlivet 50 Years Old from The Winchester Collection, distilled in 1967, sold for £1,552.50 (US$2,128).
Isabel Graham-Yooll, auction director at Whisky.Auction, noted that rare miniatures have become more accessible to consumers, with starting bids coming in at £2 (US$2.75).
“We have seen a wonderful renaissance in the appreciation of rare whisky miniatures,” explained Graham-Yooll. “Bidders are willing to pay what seems like a lot of money for tiny bottles of whisky but it is the opportunity to taste a piece of history – particularly when standard 70cl or 75cl formats have become inaccessible for many enthusiasts to buy.”
Whisky.Auction’s next quarterly miniatures and memorabilia auction will be held on 17 October 2021.
In October 2019, a 50ml bottle of the Old Orkney Real Liqueur Whisky sold for £4,000 (US$5,317), which at the time was thought to be a new world record for miniatures at auction.