Everywhere in David Maund's Hampshire home there are bottles, thousands of them, upstairs, downstairs and in his conservatory - although he now no longer has any in the bathroom.

At one time his collection of miniatures was so extensive he did have to use a wall of his bathroom to help display up to 26,000 bottles.

These days his collection, a far more modest 2,500 bottles of Scotch whisky, has been passed on to his son Simon who shares his enthusiasm for the hobby.

As well as the miniatures, David also built up an enormous collection of the distinctively bell shaped decanters containing whisky of the same name.

In 1981 David, who then ran a company marketing miniatures, wrote to the Lord Chamberlain's office and obtained official Buckingham Palace permission to produce a miniature bottle to mark the marriage of Prince Charles to Lady Diana.

"It was the first time that a picture of members of the Royal family had appeared on a bottle,'' said David.

"I think we produced something like 100,000 miniatures and we sent them all over the world.'' Nowadays David still has a fascination for miniature bottles which first began about 40 years ago.

"When I was in my 20s I went to a party at a friend's house and one thing led to another and we drank the contents of his mother's collection of miniatures,'' said David.

"The next day I went out and bought replacements for the collection and from that day on I have been fascinated by miniatures.'' At one time David was chairman of the Mini Bottle Club but today he holds the position of president of the organisation, which has about 400 members from 27 different countries, and next month he will attend an exhibition and gathering of miniature enthusiasts from around the globe in St Louis, USA.

"It is the biggest event in the miniature collector's year and there will be people from all over the world and I'll shall be flying the flag for Britain,'' said David.

For many years David was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest number of miniature bottles in the world and he still keeps a close eye on his old collection.

"In the late 1980s I suppose I had about 26,000 bottles of gin, rum, vodka, port, sherry and of course whisky.

"Then I took the decision to sell them all but I kept the whisky bottles, which then added up to about 9,000 miniatures, but over the years I have reduced that number down to about 2,500.'' These days David keeps his hand in by still looking after his former collection and by building up a relatively small number of miniatures containing cream liquers.

Later in the year the members of the Mini Bottle Club will hold their annual meeting, this time in Scotland where they will be visiting the Auchentoshan distillery, not far from Glasgow.