How has a bottle of gin suddenly made headlines?
How has a bottle of gin suddenly made headlines? Perhaps because this particular bottle is now being sold in Europe’s first NFT gallery, Quantus, and happens to be the world’s most expensive gin.
Silent Pool Gin has always been a unique work of art and passion, a world-famous luxury gin created with meticulous attention to detail. Now, we’ve partnered with Dartington Crystal and Ephtée Trunks, who have an equally uncompromising eye for beauty, precision and refinement.
One of the benefits of being an independent brand is that we have full control over our creative outlook. We’re open to a host of opportunities and partnering with like-minded businesses is something we rarely turn our back on. The process always starts the same way – who has the same values as us? Who’s taking the time to create unique products of exceptional quality? Armed with the idea of creating a one-of-a-kind bottle, our search for the perfect partner began, which swiftly led us to Dartington Crystal. We approached them with the idea of recreating the Silent Pool Gin bottle with a set of matching glasses in crystal. But the further we got into the conversation, the more we felt the result of this partnership could be something even more breath-taking. So that’s what we did. The plan to develop a bespoke, 8-litre crystal bottle of Silent PoolGin was conceived. With that, the wheels were set in motion.
Work began by forming the bespoke bottle mould. Modeled to mirror the shape of the 70cl Silent Pool Gin bottle. The crystal was hand blown by one of Dartington’s master glass smiths. Once set and cooled, the daunting task of etching the iconic Silent Pool Gin botanical pattern into the crystal was next. Dartington’s master engraver, spent over 50 hours hand-etching the intricate pattern into the 8-litre bottle. As you can imagine, such a job is unforgiving of errors. The smallest scratch in the wrong place could spell disaster. Using a hand-held precision drill, he completed the work using just visual cues. No stencil, no projections. One mammoth task complete, the team at Dartington Crystal, then went on to make a handful of crystal glasses to compliment the bottle. Also hand-etched, they were made as both Copa and Martini glasses.
The show-stopping 8 litre crystal bottle complete, we were left with a predicament. Where do we house such a creation? Something so special, so delicate, so carefully crafted had to be housed in an article made to such standards. This led us to our next port of call; Ephtée Trunks. Based in Bordeaux, their small but exceptionally talented team hand make bespoke trunks. We presented the owner, Franck Tressen, with the images of the Dartington Bottle and his team produced a sketch of their vision for it’s home and got to work. Taking 3 months to come to fruition, the trunk makes use of the Silent Pool Gin brand colours: teal and copper. The specially sourced leather was dyed to match our teal pantone. Copper was used to accent hinges, latches, window frames and bolts. The two doors open to display the 8 litre bottle centrepiece, secured with a neck brace and stood on an illuminated base. Shelves in the doors hold the bespoke crystal Copa glasses. Porthole windows tease the content within and are adorned with frosted elements of the botanical pattern.
Months of planning, hours of painstakingly detailed work. Immeasurable amounts of talent from two of Europe’s finest creators. The result? The world’s most expensive bottle of gin, valued at over £30,000. But that’s not where the story ends. We were introduced to the team at Quantus Gallery when they were preparing to open their doors as Europe’s first NFT gallery. They suggested we produce an NFT to accompany the bottle and sell them together. A video showcasing the production of the bottle was chosen as the NFT counterpart, the perfect way to express the effort put in to producing an item this special. The Dartington Crystal bottle and glasses, housed in their bespoke Ephtée trunk and presented alongside the NFT, a striking vision both physically and digitally. This was the centrepiece of the gallery’s opening night.
The creation is set to go to auction in May 2022.
The ultimate in one of a kind, luxury gin. No expense spared. No corner cut.
Unashamedly luxurious. Justifiably extravagant.
