Whisky Exchange founder to auction rare miniatures

Sukhinder Singh, co-founder of spirits retailer The Whisky Exchange, will sell a selection of old and rare spirits miniatures at auction this month.

Four hundred miniatures from Singh’s extensive collection will go under the hammer through online auctioneer Whisky.Auction starting Sunday 15 August.

Lots include a variety of tiny bottles of single malt and blended Scotch, gin, Cognac and rum.

Among the offerings are an ‘extremely rare’ 1940s Glenfiddich Special with its box; a 1930s Glen Grant bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, believed to be the first and only known example of a miniature created by the independent bottler; two ‘very old’ Cardhu sales samples, thought to be the only known examples with a UK label; and nearly 100 old blended Scotch whiskies, the majority of which were bottled in the 1930s and 1940s and purchased from David Maund, the former chairman of the UK miniature bottle club.

Singh is a well-known Scotch whisky collector, but first started by collecting miniatures. In the early 2000s, his whisky miniatures collection numbered 5,000 different bottles. He eventually sold the bottlings to dedicate his resources to finding old and rare single malts, and has since accumulated more miniatures.

The upcoming auction will see him part with the majority of his miniature collection – he plans to keep just 100.

Singh said the market for miniatures has grown over the past decade: “At one point some 20 years ago, I thought miniature collecting would die out as it was difficult and costly to find miniatures from around the world. Then as the internet became more popular, it was much easier to find fellow enthusiasts and new miniatures.”

He noted that certain rare miniatures can “fetch up to thousands of pounds”.

Bidding on Singh’s collection will go live as part of Whisky.Auction’s quarterly miniatures and memorabilia auction. Lots will start to close at 7.30pm on Tuesday 24 August.