Very Old Fitzgerald 12yr, 1949-1961

This is an early 12-year. At this point they hadn’t made the distinction between Very Old, Very Xtra Old, and Very Very old Fitzgerald. The earliest 12-year I’ve seen was a 1948-1960, one year before this bottle. Also, note the red tax strip. Even though this bottle is 100 proof, it couldn’t be marked as bonded because the bottled-in-bond period maxed out at 8 years until the law was changed in 1962.