Man who dislikes whisky collects 4,000 miniatures worth £35,000

Brian Marshall started the collection after a colleague gave him three miniature bottles

A man has amassed a collection of more than 4,000 whisky miniatures worth up to £35,000 despite finding the spirit "horrible".

Brian Marshall, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, started collecting the bottles in the late 1980s.

The collection are for sale over two auctions this month, as first reported in the Northamptonshire Telegraph.

Mr Marshall said he was "amazed" by the valuation as he believed them to worth about £8,000.

Most of the collection is from Scotland but there are also miniatures sourced from America, Iraq, Uruguay and Australia.

The collection includes a miniature bottle of Macallan 1961 commemorating Private Eye magazine's 35th anniversary estimated at between £200 and £300.

There is also a rare 1887 book by Alfred Barnard called The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, which auctioneers believed could exceed £300.

The bottles are being sold across different lot across two auctions

Mr Marshall said his collection started when a colleague started collecting whisky flagon jugs.

"He came back from holiday with three whisky miniatures and said 'you can start collecting those'," he said.

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Mr Marshall said he no longer had room to keep the collection after moving in with his partner

"I started to cataloguing them and I didn't realise I had that many," he said.

The bottles were all unopened.

He said: "I don't like whisky, it's horrible."

Auctioneer Will Gildings, based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, said it was an "incredible collection".

He said: "Due to the sheer volume of the collection and the rare examples within it, we anticipate it will make between £25,000 and £35,000 over the course of the two auctions."