by bourbonv » Wed Dec 20, 2006 3:17 pm
That helps quite a bit. The fact that it is a 4/5 quart and not metric dates it to before 1979. The 86 Proof became popular in the mid 1950's so it is probably after 1950. Sometimes, but not always, the numbers on the bottom of the bottle includes the year the glass was made. This is usually within a year of when the whiskey was bottled. The "54" on the bottom could indicate the year the glass was made and would mean the whiskey is from 1954 or 1955.
I suspect the bottle was part of a shipment to a Navy base to be sold in the PX. Is there a red strip stamp over the cork/cap? If not it would indicate a tax free bottle sold to servicemen.
Mike Veach
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873