Help to ID a Kentucky Bourbon Bottle with a partial label.

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RLM Stamps

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Thank you all for the information and replies. I plan to list this bottle on eBay starting it later tonight. Is it OK to post a link to the listing on this forum once it is live?
 

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The bottle sold on eBay today "Buy it Now" for $1140.00.
Thanks to all, and special thanks to Old Wiltshire for his help in identifying it. :)
 

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So I thought that i should have responded with more information regarding why i put that beautiful bottle up for sale on eBay. I did contact one of the recommended specialists. This was my story.

"I have a Kentucky Bourbon bottle with partial label that has been in my family for many years. Wanting to find out more information about this bottle I registered for Antique-Bottles.net forum and brought my bottle to their attention. After a number of folks were unable to ID it, finally someone did. The same person highly recommended that I contact a specialist to give me more information and a possible range for its value. They gave me two contacts and after reading about your history and seeing that you are also on the east coast I decided to contact you. Photos of my bottle attached.
This is the information that has been given to me:
Jim Bender, the FOHBC historian, published what is probably the current definitive catalogue of Bininger bottles in 2017. At that time he listed your particular bottle as BPK-53 and described it as follows:

This is the only known bottle with this
Old Kentucky Bourbon label. It is also the
only known bottle of this shape with a handle
related to A.M. Bininger & Co.


This was also written by Jim Bender on the Bininger Gallery site regarding this bottle.

Bininger’s Old Kentucky Bourbon:
Spotted at the 2017 New England Antique Bottle Show. Jim Bender: Here’s a new one for the Bininger guys. I took some nice photos of this bottle for my upcoming book on Bininger Bottles. A rare find for sure. Also not for sale.

I would like to know your opinion on a range of its value".

To be continued!!!
 

RLM Stamps

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Hello, I am familier with the bottle as I have a copy of Jim Bender’s book on Bininger bottles. The bottle without label would only fetch $75 or so at auction. Whatever value it has is in the label, unfortunately the important part of the label that has most of the printing is missing.

It’s difficult to put a value on it because of the condition of the label, but I’d say somewhere in the $375 t0 475 range
 

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Thank you for showing it to me.

Hi Bob, The antique bottle category that your bottle fits into is the whisky category. This category has a number of collectors, but not near as many as one of the major collected categories in antique bottles like say, bitters, historical flasks or early pre Civil War medicines bottles.

A sub-category of whisky's collectors are those that collect only Biningers. This group is very small, probably less than 10 serious collectors. The problem with the bottle obviously is the label. Of those who collect whiskeys in general only these few Bininger collectors would be the only ones to show any interest. I understand the supply and demand theory, but in the bottle world desirability dominates over everything else. There are hand blown antique medicine bottle from around 1900 to 1910 that are a 'one of a kind', but almost no one cares because they are late production and are usually only in either in aqua, amber or clear glass. so the lack eye appeal and desirability. Their are hundreds of bottles like this that fit into this category. Often times at a show somewhere will show me one of these bottles asking if ‘I have ever seen one’? My response is usually, ‘no I haven’t seen it, it’s a rare bottle, but no one really cares’?

I have some working knowledge of stamps, enough to no that the market, like many other types of antiques and collectable has dropped. Great rarities usually do hold value, but condition is all important, (remember the desirability factor),so who much would the value of a very rare stamp be is 40% of it was missing? If the label on this bottle was perfect, I could probably get several thousand dollars.
 

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Thank you for getting back to me. Due to what Jim Bender stated in his book, I was hoping to hear a higher value. I have been working with old classic US stamps for quite a while and usually the fewer of a particular stamp the higher the value. Simple economics, supply and demand. I do understand that it is hard to figure what could happen at auction. Could you please answer a couple of questions for me.

What is your commission rate? Are their any other associated charges? What does it take to have a minimum bid or reserve? That is established by us When is your next auction that this item would work well in, giving you enough time to hopefully talk it up? Being the only known bottle, even without any label other than the one mentioned in the book; "which is not for sale", I can not imagine it not doing well.


He answered back 20%, No other associated charges, Our Spring May Auction.


Hi Jim,

Thank you for elaborating on the market and situation with this bottle.
When you said "That is established by us." to my question, "What does it take to have a minimum bid or reserve?" Who is us? Is it you and your staff or you and I?
What would you feel comfortable as a minimum bid on this bottle?
 

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Hi Bob, The cataloging is usually done by me, sometimes Jesse.

I’ve given a good bit of thought regarding its salability. I have only one buyer who would almost certainly have interest, but because of the labels condition his interest would be simply as an example until he finds a better one. His name is Don Keating. Don has the most definitive collection of Bininger’s known to exist, many of which are pictured in Bender’s book on the subject.

I would place the minimum bid at $250 with a $375.00 - 475.00 estimate of value. And hope for the best.
 

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