Auction Highlight: The Macallan 1926 Valerio Adami 60 Year Old
The Macallan 1926 is one of the world’s rarest and most sought-after single malt whiskies.
Just a minute forty bottles were drawn from ex-Sherry hogshead #263, containing liquid distilled almost 100 years ago in 1926. That same year was the height of Prohibition in America and saw the first telephone call made across the Atlantic Ocean between London and New York.
Of the forty bottles, twenty-four were commissioned for label designs by esteemed artists Peter Blake and Valerio Adami (twelve apiece) and a further two were sold un-labelled at auctions for bespoke label design.
Italian illustrator and painter, Valerio Adami, is renowned as one of Europe’s most influential pop-artists. Pursuing his penchant for bold, flat forms of colour and thick borders, the bespoke label is reminiscent of some of Adami’s most recognised works.
The design artfully depicts a label within a label, as a fragmented nude figure drawn in black line is seen admiring their own image on the bottle before them. A thick gold border completes the design featuring hand-written details narrating that this is bottle #12 of 12.
Of the twelve bespoke Valerio Adami embellished bottles, it is rumoured that one was destroyed in a 2011 earthquake in Japan, and that at least one of them has been consumed.
Deftly uniting whisky and art connoisseurs, this remarkable bottle is not only a paragon of whisky-making, but an incomparable work of art. The Macallan 1926 Valerio Adami is a testament to the mastery of those who have gone before and an inspiration for those who will follow.
