BONHAM’S worker Lucy Clarke takes great care as she handles a Bowmore Islay single malt, which is about to become the UK's most expensive tipple.

The cost of just one nip of the exclusive single malt will set the buyer back £3500, while the whole bottle is expected to sell for £150,000.

Only 12 bottles of Bowmore 1957 have been produced and the first bottle to be made publicly available will go under the hammer at an Edinburgh auction house this week.

A bottle of 64-year-old Macallan in Lalique glassware holds the current Guinness World Record for the most expensive whisky ever sold at auction, fetching a £291,125 in 2010.

Picture: Gordon Terris