A rare bottle of whisky worth up to £700,000 with a label designed by the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover co-creator is going up for auction.

The Macallan 60-year-old 1926 leads Bonhams whisky sale in Edinburgh next month. Its label was designed by acclaimed British pop artist Sir Peter Blake.

It lay at the distillery for more than six decades in an oaken cask brought from Spain, before it was bottled in 1986.

Bonhams Whisky Sale
Charlotte Canby from Bonhams auctioneers with the bottle (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Only 12 bottles with the label designed by Sir Peter – most popularly known for co-creating the iconic cover for The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – were issued.

Bonhams whisky specialist Martin Green said: “It is dark honey-gold in colour, and is almost inconceivably smooth with a luscious hint of dry-sweetness in the malt.”

It is estimated to be worth between £500,000 and £700,000, having been kept by a UK collector who acquired the bottle on its release in 1986.

One of the bottles sold in May 2018 at Bonhams in Hong Kong for £751,703.

At the time, this set a world record for a bottle of whisky at auction and is still the highest price paid for a Macallan 60-year-old 1926 from the Blake series.

The whisky sale takes place on Wednesday March 6 starting at 11am.