An Old Ingledew Whiskey bottle, which was passed on from FDR to Harry S. Truman, is expected to sell for $20,000 to $40,000—one to two million pesos—in June.
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American auction house Skinner recently announced that it will be placing a prized bottle of Old Ingledew Whiskey under the gavel in a couple of months. It is believed to be the oldest whiskey in existence, determined through to Carbon 14 dating.
“The Old Ingledew Whiskey, bottled by Evans & Ragland, Lagrange GA, c. 1860s, is thought to be the only surviving bottle of a trio from the cellar of J.P. Morgan gifted in the 1940s to Washington power elite,” says Joseph Hyman, Skinner’s rare spirits expert, in the announcement.
An evaluation by the University of Glasgow places the creation of the bottle somewhere in the middle of the American Revolutionary War and the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s. A separate analysis this year by the University of Georgie more or less agrees, dating it from 1762 to 1802.
Powerful owners
The Old Ingledew bottle has apparently passed hands among a few influential men. JP Morgan, the financier and banker who dominated Wall Street at the start of the previous century, apparently bought it on a visit to Georgia. Through Morgan’s son Jack, the bottle was passed on. Two of the bottle’s twins were passed on, with former US Presidents Harry S. Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt each receiving one.
But the bottle that will be up for auction went to James Byrnes, who was a former member of the US congress and the Supreme Court. After leaving office, Drake gave it to his Scottish neighbor Francis Drake, whose family has held on to it for three generations.
Skinner estimates the bottle to sell somewhere between $20,000 to $40,000—that’s one to two million pesos—and is a highlight at their upcoming Rare Spirits auction from June 22 to 30.
