The Jack Daniel's Sources

On this page I will show you items that have something to do with the making Jack Daniel's whiskey. Some of these items belong to the people that work(ed) at the distillery, sold to me or given to me as a gift or a token of friendship. These people are the sources of information, they shared inside information about making Jack Daniel's whiskey and the items sold by the company to make and to promote our favorite Tennessee whiskey. Most of these items are not ment for the general public or for private collections and can be considered as very rare and valuable. Please enjoy it...

On my last vacation over there in Lynchburg in October 2003 I had the pleasure of a "private" tour with a good friend that knows a lot of the history of Mr. Jack's Daniel's, Lem Motlow's family and Lynchburg. He took me down to place where Mr. Jack grow up, he showed me Dan Call's first and second house (where Mr. Jack also grow up and learned the process of distilling). I took some real nice pictures of the scenes that I will share with you below. Please enjoy them...

Dan Call's 1st house

The next picture is where Mr. Jack got his first limestone spring water from. As you problebly know this area is full of feeding pools, streams and creeks. Because of health problem myside I wasn't abble to go all the way up this path to take better, close up pictures of the water source. Exact in the middle of this pictures, up the hill is where Mr. Jack used his first spring water. This picture is take just a side of Dan Call 's first house. As far as I have found out the still of Dan Call was set up on "Louse Creek".

On the picture below you see Mr. Dan Call second house. When Mr. Jack had trouble with his parents he went to Dan Call and stayed there, he was 7 years old.... Mr. Jack "lived" in this house...

Dan Call's 2 nd house

Back to the distiilery.... When they have distilled the alcohol they have got to test it for tax payment. Here is a very rare test bottle from 1966 that was used for a tax paid sample. It's a half pint with a black metal cap.

This is the alcohol distillery.

The half pint sample above is an empty bottle. Below you see a full 200 ml size flask used for lab purposes. Awesome item and without doubt very rare. The bottle was never sealed but is now sealed with wax to prevent evaporation of the whiskey.

Tax 1/5 Gallon seal sheet

I want to show you a cool item I got in my collection. It's not Jack Daniel's but it is still a cool item... This is a sheet of 1/5 Gallon tax labels that are never used! I do got a few un-used labels in my collection (also from the Jack Daniel's distillery with Mr. Jack's cameo on it...) but this one is something special. These are labels used before 1964. After this date the "volumes" where removed from the tax seals. This is also a way to "date" a bottle...

Barrel Stencel

To keep track of the barrel and to know from which year the whiskey inside is made they brand the barrel with numbers and dates. There for they use these kinds of stencels. Made of brass. Pretty rare and hard to find. The black color are the leftovers of the fire they used. There are more than 5 different barrel stencels used the last 30 years. This one is from the 70-ties. Estimate value of this item? I have seen 2 of them sell for... over $ 1000.00 a piece!

These kind of stencels are favorite in the famous black and white adds Jack Daniel's use in magezines back then. Here is a sample of one of the adds. Maybe it's the same as the one I got in my collection?? The little piece between the letter like the "D" en the letter "O" are very fragile, as you can see are centers of these two letters are all gone in my stencel.

Here you see a picture I found in the "Tennessee History Quarterly" booklet from begin 70-ties showing the barrels that are stenceled.

Joe Fanning bottle

There were only twelve made. This bottle was made by the Owens Brockway Company to commemorate the retirement of Joe Fanning. He was the glass buyer for the Distillery for thirty three years. This unusual bottle is 700 ml and has a non-refillable fitment which means after capping, product will pour out, but cannot pour into bottle. It measures 9 1/4" tall and 3" wide. I always thought it was never filled but it seems they have been (sorry for the misunderstanding).

This bottle didn't have a label but it is embosed on two sides (one side reads "BEST WISHES JOE FANNING 33 YEARS OF SERVICE AND CONTRIBUTION TO JACK DANIEL DISTILLERY", the other side reads "A VALUED CUSTOMER AND A TRUE FRIEND THANKS FROM YOUR MANY FRIENDS AT OWENS BROCKWAY"):

These days they keep the empty barrels in Lynchburg. For years they where sold to a Scotisch Whisky brand that used them again for there whiskey. They stopped buying them so Jack Daniel's now has a lot (and I mean a Lot!) of barrels stacked away on several places in Lynchburg, TN.

Touch the sides of the picture and see how many barrels there are on this place....

It took a while but here is my own Jack Daniel's Barrel!

The next piece of barrel wood is sold by the Hardware and General store in Lynchburg, TN. After the Whiskey is distilled is will rest for 7 years in oak barrels. This is a stick from a used barrel. You can see at the close up the burning from the wood. This give the whiskey extra rich taste. The whiskey will go in and out of the barrel sucking up the sugar that is left in the wood.

14 kt. Gold Ring "20 years of service"

This is one of the most rarest item I got in the collection. It's a 16.1 grams, size 13 mans ring given to an employee for 20+ years of service at the Jack Daniel's distillery. Off course these items are not sold to the public so it's very, very rare to see these items in a personal collection like mine. I have traded the ring for a $ 1000.00 Lincoln County jug (from Sully's, Lynchburg, TN)

14 kt. Gold Pendent with Diamond "c.15 years of service"

Next item is a 14 karat gold pendent with a little diamond inside given to employees that worked more than c.15 years at the distillery. Never thought I would buy that ring and what happens... one month later someone offered me this very rare pendent! I tried to make a nice close up of it.
The cameo looks allmost the same as they used in the ring, little difference is that they used a little diamond on the place where the "old No.7" logo is used in the ring. Size? The square is a half inch high.... It is very, very detailed considered the small size of it.

Keep in mind these are never sold to the general public and considered very rare for a private collection. I am glad I can share this with you.

This is the back of the pendent. The diamond's fixed right through the gold plate and you can feel the little point of it at the back.

14 kt. Gold "15 years of service" knife

This next item is from our fellow collector from the UK, Darren Kinson. He wanted to share this beautiful knife with us here on the site. I guess that the cameo is also made out of 14kt. Gold like the other service items. I do not know for sure since I haven;t hold the knife myself.

great details!

14 kt. Gold Pin "5 years of service"

Sometimes I got lucky at an auction like on Ebay and find such a little jewel like this pin. It is a 5 years of service pin made out of 14 k gold and given to an employee that worked there for at least 5 years. Never thought I would find one of the three gold items you see here on this page but again.. sometimes you're lucky. I bought the pin for ...only $ 50.00 !

Back side of pin.

Employee "Safety Lives here" wrist band

Employee Fitness day Knive

Here is a knife given to employees at the fitness and health day at the distillery. Nice collectable since it's only for employees.... This is a very big knife with over 11 different tools, incl. tooth pick and beer opener!

This is an old bag that was used to carry the employees week payments to the office. Nice and odd Jack Daniel's item. Click on the bag to see some close up pictures.
(the idea of the picture doesn't work 100 % perfect so I made a link from the top to bottom of this page that you can use...)