Islayphiles may have heard tell of the record-breaking bottle of Bowmore recently auctioned for £29,400 at a McTears auction in Glasgow. If you want to see the bottle in question, follow this link: www.telegraph.co.uk/news

Take a close look at the label, though, since it is germane to what follows. (And also note that the cork fell into the whisky the week before it was sold. Drat!)

I am not an expert on the authentication of ancient whisky … but I am very happy to share the scholarship of those who know more than I do.

Here is a letter concerning this bottle from Iain Russell, the archivist at the Scottish Brewing Archive.

Dear Andrew,

I have examined as closely as I can the splendid-looking bottle of W&J Mutter’s Bowmore Islay Whisky which appeared in the recent McTears whisky auction catalogue. The auctioneers provided the estimated date as “circa 1850”, which must have been a major factor in attracting a successful bid of £25,000 on auction day. Looking more closely, however, there are several features of the bottle and the get-up that seem to come from a later period.

1. Neither the bottle nor the “original” carton in which it came to the auction were put on public display at the pre-auction viewing at McTears showroom. Nor were they on public view at the auction itself. It is therefore only possible to comment on the image of the bottle which appeared in the auction catalogue.

From its appearance there, with its bulbous neck and body shape, it does not appear to be “hand blown” (if that means mouth blown), but rather machine made. This would be very unusual for a whisky bottle manufactured circa 1850.

2. The only reference point I can find for the appearance of a 19th century Mutter’s Bowmore bottle is the advertisement for the brand which appears on the Morrison Bowmore website, and is apparently from the late 19th century.
(at http://www.bowmore.co.uk/News.aspx).

Unsurprisingly, the bottle in the advertisement is made of dark glass. Whisky companies favored dark glass bottles until the late-19th century (and it remained common to use them long after that). It would be highly unlikely to find a Scotch whisky bottled in relatively expensive clear glass circa 1850, but the bottle sold at the auction seems to be made of clear glass.

It is also significant that the bottle of Bowmore in the advertisement has a straight neck, not the bulbous neck which is such an unusual feature of the “circa 1850” bottle.

3. I have never seen mention of a “cardboard carton” accompanying a Scotch whisky bottle from the mid-19th century, and don’t believe it likely that it can be “original” to a bottle from circa 1850, as claimed in the McTears catalogue. However, it is difficult to comment on the carton as no image or description has been published.

4. The level of the liquid appears to come up to the neck of the bottle, which seems remarkably high for a whisky purportedly bottled more than 150 years ago, and which has a damaged cork and capsule.

Indeed, the cork is reported to have fallen into the bottle some time prior to the sale, suggesting that it may have been “loose” in the neck. A loose cork would permit more rapid evaporation of the contents. Evaporation would be more rapid still, if the lead capsule were punctured as it is here.

Unfortunately, we don’t know when the cork and capsule of the “circa 1850” Bowmore bottle were damaged.

5. As is well known, Scotch whisky companies did not begin seriously to develop brands until the early 1870s, when they also began to register brand names and devices as trademarks. Until then, most bottles of whisky were sold with plain labels, providing little information other than the name of the whisky and the bottler, and with little (if any) decoration. Yet the “circa 1850” Bowmore carries a sophisticated and ornate 4-colour label, the likes of which only became common in the trade in the late Victorian period with the development of a mass market for bottled whiskies.

(For more info on the label, see the accompanying expert report from paper conservator Doug Stone below.)

The bottle label also carries a trademark declaration, which seems an unlikely feature on a whisky bottled prior to the development of branded bottled whiskies in the 1870s.

6. I sent a list of my concerns regarding the dating of the bottle to Martin Green of McTears. He insisted that the date “circa 1850s” is accurate, on the basis of family tradition among the descendants of the Mutter family who submitted the bottle for auction.

It seems a thin single thread on which to hang the date of a bottle. Anyone who has watched the BBC series “Who Do You Think You Are?” will know that the facts of a family’s history often become distorted and confused over the generations. The possibility of confusion is increased by the frequent occurrence of the name William in the Mutter family (and the family business) during the 19th century.

7. I shared my concerns with Professor Michael Moss, co-author of the respected history of the whisky industry, The Making of Scotch Whisky and of the potted history of Bowmore Distillery which is included by McTears in the catalogue entry. He does not believe it likely that the bottle is from the 1850s.

Michael pointed out that, when W&J Mutter registered their trademark in 1876, the partners claimed that the firm had used the trademark “W&J Mutter’s Bowmore Islay Whisky” only for “six years before 15 Mar 1876” – ie; since 1870. He is now conducting further research into the history of the company in an attempt to find a definite date for the trademark design that is reproduced on the label.

The condition and the features of the bottle and label, with evidence that Mutters themselves claimed to have used their trademark only from 1870, seem compelling evidence that the estimated age of the bottle should be revised. Rather than “circa 1850”, I believe “circa 1890” would be a safer estimate.

Yours in true spirit,

Iain Russell
Archivist
Scottish Brewing Archive

Lot Description Illustration
152 W & J Mutter’s Bowmore-Circa 1850
Distilled and bottled by W & J Mutter, Bowmore Distillery, Islay. Hand blown pale green glass bottle. Driven cork, embossed lead capsule with the Mutter family crest and “Bowmore Islay Whisky”. The lead capsule has been punctured in the centre and centre right side of the top has a small section missing. The driven cork has dropped. The bottle is accompanied by the original cardboard carton in which it has been stored. Level: just into neck of bottle. Single malt
1 bottle
Provenance: The bottle was presented to William Mutter in 1851 at the time of him giving up his share of the distillery and has remained in the family for generations. It has been inherited by family descent until the present day. The successful buyer will receive a hand written provenance
The distillery: Is said to have been founded 1779; John Simpson (also Simson) 1816-18; John Johnston 1825-6; John Simpson 1826-37 at least; operating 1851; William and James Mutter (twins) 1852; continued until early 1890’s, when Bowmore Distillery Co. Ltd. formed. Up for sale 1922. Purchased 1925 by Sherriff’s Bowmore Distillery Ltd which was acquired 1950 by William P. Grigor & Son Ltd, Inverness, and purchased by Stanley P. Morrison Ltd 1963. Licensed to Morrison’s Bowmore Distillery Ltd. Courtesy of The Scotch Whisky Industry Record
£15,000 - 20,000
Lot 152 illustration

The issue of the paper is crucial. Here is the communication Iain Russell has received from paper conservator Doug Stone, who cites as his authority the timeline coming from Michael Twyman, Printing 1770-1970: an illustrated history of its development and uses in England (1998: The British Library, London, pp. 36-47, the section entitled ‘Printing in colour’). Doug’s view is that:

[There is] not a possiblity of having printed four-color labels for whisky in 1850.

First of all, there was color printing earlier, but it was horrendously expensive. The French started three-, then four-color printing, and it was done as a relief print (wood blocks). However, it was still cheaper to do hand coloring than four-color printing up until 1839. 1839 marked the start of color printing: see handbook in French by Chevreul. This, though, wasn’t translated into English until 1854. Most four-color printing was used for small run, extremely expensive books reproducing illustrated medieval manuscripts.

Commercial color printing was still in infancy by 1850, as it was very expensive, and it was hard to manufacture the oil-base colors. Black was easy. Most four-color at that time was used for small edition decoration printing, with colors printed over each other while still wet. The big problem was color registration (where things slip due to paper being wet when printing, then shrinking, leaving print looking out of focus).

Baxter prints were really hard to make (using intaglio printing, then reworking and overlaying a lot of different colors: impressive but very expensive). Chromolithography became the norm for later printing, but not in 1850. This used 4-12 colors, polished plates or stone, and by 1870 had became cheaper to produce. But there was no way anyone could use it for labels and not go broke.

1851 was the turning point for color reproductions, but only the turning point; it took another 20 years to make things useable on wide scale. The first English photo reproductions in color start in 1860 (Clerk Maxwell is the inventor).

Note that 1850 is just too early for a label, unless it was printed by hand and probably colored by hand. If there are photographic dots, it’s a fake. If it’s four-color, it probably cost more than the bottle and the whisky together (possible but extremely unlikely). It should be examined in person using at least 10x magnification (30x is better). If a screen appearance is visible, it’s past 1880. If the colors show very distinct dots, it’s probably a chromolithograph, and again 1850 is too early. It might be a relief print – however the type of paper will give it away. Relief needs very soft paper, since it has to be wet when printed. 1850 simply is too early for all this.

Iain also alludes to the view of Professor Michael Moss on this matter. Here is a communication I have received from Professor Moss.

Dear Andrew

I emailed the Telegraph to point out inaccuracies in their published account. What Iain and I have established is that the original partnership of W & J Mutter was dissolved in 1851. William became a rentier and retired to Ardrossan and James took over the Bowmore distillery and farms on Islay. The family came from Edinburgh with a long pedigree in the brewing and wine and spirit trade. James traded as A & J Mutter of Islay and Liverpool. We do not know yet who the A Mutter was. James died in 1860 at his home in Dalkeith leaving three young sons William, George and James. During their minority the distillery was carried on by trustees chaired by William senior and managed by James’s clerk Archibald Weir. Under Scots law trustees were very circumscribed in what they could do. They certainly could not invest in new ventures. The brothers took over the distillery in 1870 when a new firm of W & J Mutter was formed and, as we know from the trade mark gazette, new labels were introduced. These were registered in 1876. Interestingly the brothers were being financed in part from 1874 by Alexander Walker, the great grain distiller, leading us to think that Bowmore was probably a blend at this date. George was dead by 1878. James left the partnership in 1887 to emigrate to British Columbia and James Mason, a merchant in Edinurgh; John Alexander, a merchant in Glasgow; Alexander McGuffie, another Glasgow merchant; and George Dalgarno, a distiller in Glasgow joined the firm. We have not yet investigagted them. W & J Mutter was liquidated in 1890 and Bowmore was acquired by two London speculators. William Mutter died childless in 1891, leaving only £1,226. You will notice that there are significant differences between the registered label [AJ: pdfs of which Professor Moss emailed to me] and the one on the bottle that was sold. If it is genuine, I would guess the date from the four-colour printing to be about 1890, which suggests a new design had been introduced, and the bottle was given to William on the liquidation of the partnership in that year. As you may know most designs were registered and can be found in the COPY series at The National Archives at Kew, often under the name of the advertising agent. William’s will names William Porteus as his agent so it should not be difficult to check.

with best wishes

Michael Moss

I am delighted to be able to publish these views on the matter, and am grateful to Iain Russell, Doug Stone and Michael Moss. If anyone has further thoughts to contribute (include McTears, the vendor of the bottle, the purchaser of the bottle and/or the present-day owners of Bowmore), I would be happy to air these.

And the moral? Caveat emptor, of course. If only malt could talk …