$250K for 1913 STITZEL WELLER'S ORIGINAL BOURBON, kidding me

[Lazer]

The golden glow of the whiskey says chill filtration to me. And the missing foil on top is weird.

[callmeox]

What about the missing top part of the foil and the glue coming out from under it? If they removed the label, do you think they might have removed the original contents and re-filled with something else?

The contents are incidental to the collectible container


Or something like that.

[cowdery]

What about the missing top part of the foil and the glue coming out from under it? If they removed the label, do you think they might have removed the original contents and re-filled with something else?

Entirely possible. Or they concocted this scheme after finding the complete set, contents already gone. I can imagine someone who received this as a gift opening it and drinking the whiskey (as God intended), but carefully preserving the closure so the set could be restored to its original condition, sans whiskey, and 'saved' as people do. The original recipient dies and this winds up in a yard sale. I buy it for 50 cents, and then concoct this brilliant scheme.

That, to me, is a reasonable scenario. Then all the person has to do is refill the bottle, restore the foil capsule as well as possible, and add one line to the label. Not that difficult. But he got greedy.

Either that or the whole thing is a huge goof, i.e., a joke.

Then again, the more you get to know people, the more you see how oddly some people's brains work.

[wripvanwrinkle]

What about the missing top part of the foil and the glue coming out from under it? If they removed the label, do you think they might have removed the original contents and re-filled with something else?

The hole in the top is consistent with the Old Fitz foils that I have seen.

.imagehal.jpg

[cowdery]

WA Back.jpg

WA Front.jpg

WA Top.jpg

So here is a similar bottle from about the same time, probably a little later, but definitely pre-1979. Note the similarity in the lower part of the front label and even the age statement in red, the only red ink on the label. Note also the sealed top of the foil capsule, and the characteristic back label.

Let's start the bidding at $243,795.

[Lazer]

The age statement on Chuck's bottle is sitting in the middle of white-space on the label not stamped over part of the design.

[bourbonv]

The label is a design I have seen in label books from the late 1940s, not the 1960s. I have never seen in the Stitzel-Weller records of such a bottling in the 1960s. I would not swear from just looking at photographs that it was faked, but I certainly would not purchase the bottle on line at any price.

Mike Veach

[cowdery]

I was hoping Mike would weigh in, because it also occurred to me that if SW had ever done a bottling like that, at any time in its history, we would probably know about it.

[Bmac]

WA Back.jpg

WA Front.jpg

WA Top.jpg

So here is a similar bottle from about the same time, probably a little later, but definitely pre-1979. Note the similarity in the lower part of the front label and even the age statement in red, the only red ink on the label. Note also the sealed top of the foil capsule, and the characteristic back label.

Let's start the bidding at $243,795.

Thanks Chuck. That does make some of the data on the main label more viable.

I'd buy it for 10 dollars just to see what IS in it

[tommyboy38]

Looks fairly legit to me and similiar to other VOF, VVOF's I have.