London CNN  — 

The world’s most expensive bottle of whisky has sold for ￡1.2 million ($1.53 million) at Christie’s in London.

The vintage spirit, which came in a unique bottle painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon, smashed a record set last month when a bottle of the same 1926 vintage sold at Bonhams in Edinburgh for more than ￡848,000 ($1.1 million).

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And that sale exceeded another record, set just a few months earlier at Bonhams in Hong Kong, by more than ￡30,000.

The Macallan 1926 60-Year-Old was bottled in 1986, having spent six decades maturing in ex-sherry casks at The Macallan distillery near the River Spey in north-east Scotland.

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Three artists were asked to design a label for the vintage: Peter Blake – best known for designing the cover of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” – Italian painter Valerio Adami and Dillon.

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A Bonhams porter shows the bottle of Macallan Valerio Adamai 1926 whisky which sold for a world record sale price of ￡700,000 at auction in Edinburgh on October 3, 2018. - The whisky, which was in a vat for 60 years from 1926 then bottled, fetched ￡700,000 plus a ￡148,000 sales premium to make it the most expensive whisky for ￡848,000. (Photo by Andy Buchanan / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/Getty Images)
This bottle of whisky just sold for $1.1M
01:12 - Source: CNN

But while Blake and Adami each produced labels for 12 individually numbered bottles, Dillon hand-painted a single bottle, depicting Easter Elchies House at The Macallan distillery, against the backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.

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Tim Triptree, Christie’s international director of wine, said on the auction house’s website: “The Macallan were unsure that this bottle still existed – it was last seen at Fortnum & Mason in London in 1999.”

He added: “This whisky is basically the finest and most collectable single malt produced in the 20th century.”