Top 14 Most Expensive Collectibles in the World
Reading time 10 min
- The most expensive banknote in the world
- The most expensive book in the world
- The most expensive coin in the world
- The most expensive instrument in the world
- The most expensive movie poster in the world
- The most expensive camera in the world
- The most expensive toy in the world
- The most expensive clock in the world
- The most expensive jewel in the world
- The most expensive fossil in the world
- The most expensive tableware in the world
- The most expensive wine in the world
- The most expensive baseball card in the world
- The most expensive stamp in the world
If we had only looked at the most expensive items in the world, the results would have been... interesting!
We could have told you about a toilet made of Louis Vuitton bags or a 22-carat gold woven toilet paper (yes, lots of toilet-related items) but we prefer to focus on what we know best: collectibles and art pieces.
For this article, we will skip the classic or contemporary works of art and focus on other objects that have also broken records.
We have selected 14 of them for your enjoyment.
The Most Expensive Banknote in the World
The most expensive banknote in the world is also American. Dollars are definitely leading the sales!
It is the 1,000 dollars note from 1890, also called the Grand Watermelon. The rarest and most famous American banknote. The nickname "Grand Watermelon" was given to it because of the peculiar shape of the zeros on the reverse side which look like watermelons.
The note reached $3.29 million (€2,791,803) in January 2014 during an auction. This is easily explained by its high face value but also by the year of issue.
The Most Expensive Book in the World
It is now time to escape from the United States, at least as far as the origin of this object is concerned.
The most expensive book in the world is a 72 pages manuscript dating from between 1506 and 1510, called the Leicester Codex and written by Leonardo da Vinci. It is a collection of scientific notes and diagrams. The whole text is written in mirror image, as the great Italian thinker liked to do. It is therefore completely unreadable without a mirror at your disposal.
The Codex has passed through the hands of several collectors and they have often renamed it. It became the Leicester Codex in 1717 when it was owned by Thomas Coke, the first Earl of Leicester. It was then sold at auction in 1980 and became part of the art collection of Armand Hammer. It was therefore renamed the Hammer Codex.
Then, on 11 November 1994, Bill Gates acquired it by bidding by telephone. Perhaps he was less megalomaniac than the others? This is a possibility because the CEO of Microsoft decided to break this strange naming tradition and renamed it the Leicester Codex. This Leonardo da Vinci manuscript is now the only one owned by a private collector, who acquired it for only $30.8 million.
The Most Expensive Music Instrument in the World
Let's keep with art but let's use our ears instead, as this is now time for the most expensive musical instrument in the world.
As you might expect, this instrument is none other than a violin made in 1721 by Antonio Giacomo Stradivari, known as Stradivarius, the most famous Italian violin maker! It is the so-called Lady Blunt model, named after its first known owner: Lady Anne Blunt, the granddaughter of the poet Lord Byron. It is one of the best preserved Stradivarius violins in the world. Almost untouched and very little used. The instrument was sold in 2011 for $15.9 million (or €11 million).
But this record could have been beaten by another Stradivarius violin dating from 1719. The best period of Stradivari's manufacture. The so-called McDonald model which was auctioned on 26 June 2014 with a minimum price of $45 million in view of its perfect condition and rarity: only 10 examples of this violin remain. Unfortunately, it did not find a buyer...
The Most Expensive Movie Poster in the World
It is not a film prop or a script that holds the record for the most expensive film object, but a film poster.
The poster for the 1927 film Metropolis by German director Fritz Lang, the most expensive silent and futuristic film ever made!
This is the poster in its so-called international version which does not include the credits. There are currently only 4 known copies of it, which makes it the most coveted. There are two copies in museums: one in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and one in the Austrian National Library. A third is currently owned by the actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The last copy, the one we are talking about, was sold in an auction decided by the US Commercial Court along with many other posters.
Ralph DeLuca was the buyer. The film poster collector won the auction for 1.2 million dollars.
The Most Expensive Coin in the World
We told you about it a while ago in this article.
The 1933 gold "Double Eagle" coin, sold at auction on June 8, 2021 by Sotheby's New York, became the most expensive coin in the world with a value of 19.51 million dollars.
To find out more about this coin we suggest you to read the article linked above.
The Most Expensive Camera in the World
An iconic brand that holds all the records in its field, since the camera that held the record previously already belonged to them!
It is the Leica 0-Series dating from 1923. Sold at auction in Vienna, Austria in 2012, this camera was originally a prototype.
Only 25 were produced and today there are only 12 left. It served as a test for the creation of the Leica I, the first 35mm (or 24x36) model with a fixed 50mm lens.
The buyer of this film camera remained anonymous and paid 2.16 million euros. The starting price was set at 300,000 euros and this sum was quickly exceeded. The price of 1.8 million was reached in just 4 minutes.
The Most Expensive Toy in the World
The most expensive toy in the world is well worth the price!
It is a dollhouse, but it is much more than a classic dollhouse. The Astolat Castle Dollhouse is 2.75 metres tall and has 29 rooms. It is a real museum piece valued 8,5 million euros. The structure is entirely handmade and has countless breathtaking details.
The interior is fully furnished and decorated. There are working fireplaces and lamps, stained glass windows designed especially for this house, small bottles of alcohol to fill the bar and over 10,000 handcrafted miniature items including original artworks, gold chandeliers and the world's smallest Bible. To top it all off for a collector, inside we find a table covered with a small collection of minerals!
This toy, which is not really a toy anymore, was created between 1974 and 1987 by Elaine Diehl and several artists participated in the interior elements. This impressive house is now owned by a private collector who has chosen to remain anonymous.
The Most Expensive Clock in the World
The most expensive clock in the world is not just a clock, it is the Rothschild Fabergé Egg.
This clock egg was sold to a Russian collector in 2007 for the amazing price of 13,5 million euros. As well as being the most expensive clock in the world, it is also the most expensive Fabergé egg in the world. It was made by Peter Carl Fabergé in 1902 for the engagement of Baron Edouard de Rothschild. A beautiful gift.
These opulent eggs were traditionally designed and given for Easter to the family of Tsar Alexander III until his abdication and execution in 1917.
This translucent pink enamel clock is considered one of the finest Fabergé eggs. It is adorned with gold, precious stones and let's not forget the rooster which, each hour, emerges from the egg and appears at the top of the egg flapping its wings.
The Most Expensive Jewel in the World
A jewel that is for sure the most expensive, the most famous and, according to rumour, the most cursed: the Hope Diamond.
After several years of investigation it was confirmed that this blue diamond is the Bleu de France, a stone that belonged to Louis XIV in 1668. Although it has unfortunately lost some of its brilliance due to a rough cut, it is still a 45.52 carat diamond. It has passed through the hands of many collectors and jewellers since the French King: from Marie Antoinette to Harry Wilson or even Pierre Cartier.
All these collectors would be witnesses of a curse, the stone would bring death and misfortune. Madness, suicide, drowning, car accidents and bankruptcy are just some of the unfortunate events that befell their owners. Is this why its last owner gave it to the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington? Perhaps.
Indeed, the jeweller, Harry Winston donated the gem in 1958, sending it in a simple kraft envelope to the institution. The jewel is still on display. It was insured for 216 million euros.
The Most Expensive Fossil in the World
The most expensive fossil in the world has a name, it is called Stan and it is one of the most complete T-Rex specimen in the world.
It was sold by Christie's New York for $31.8 million, making Stan the most expensive dinosaur and fossil ever sold at auction. The skeleton was discovered in 1987 and took 30,000 hours to complete. This Tyrannosaurus Rex is 70% complete.
However, the sale of dinosaur skeletons is controversial. The main problem is that private collectors spend huge amounts of money to obtain them and public institutions cannot keep up. These fossils are therefore potentially lost to science.
We hope for Stan's sake that one day he will be able to join his fellow dinosaurs in a museum collection.
The Most Expensive Tableware in the World
This is a piece of Chinese tableware from the Song Dynasty.
This small bowl that was used to clean small brushes was sold at auction in 2017 for $37,68 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong. It took only 20 minutes to reach that amount.
The porcelain was described as "extremely rare and important" by the auction house. And understandably so: the "Ru Guanyao" ware is considered rare because production of this porcelain lasted only two decades before it was discontinued.
This 900 years old bowl has all the aesthetic characteristics of this period: the material has a glazed and crackled effect with intense blue-green colour shades.
The Most Expensive Wine in the World
Romanée-Conti is considered the most prestigious wine in Burgundy, if not in the world. It was therefore logical that bottles of this wine should take off at auctions.
A standard 75cl bottle of this great wine was sold in October 2018 for $558,000 (or €482,000) by Sotheby's New York. The label of this wine displayed the date 1945, an important date for this appellation as only 600 bottles of this year are still in existence. This was before the estate pulled up its vines and replanted them.
The Most Expensive Baseball Card in the World
With only 9 known copies of this card, it has become the rarest and most valuable baseball card in the world.
It is the Honus Wagner model. A model in excellent condition was sold for $3,12 million in 2016. The Holy Grail of baseball cards.
The reason it is so rare and expensive today is that the player forced the American Tobacco Company (which put Baseball cards inside their cigarette packs until 1930) to withdraw this card from production. It was this decision that made the card, more than 100 years later, the most expensive card in the world.
The Most Expensive Stamp in the World
If you have read about the most expensive coin in the world, you have probably also read about the most expensive stamp in the world!
The "One Cent Magenta" whose incredible story was well worth the diversions. If you have not yet had the opportunity to read it, do not hesitate to discover the history of this stamp in our previous article.
We remind you that this stamp reached the sum of 8,307,000 dollars on June 8th 2021.
Obviously, we have selected some exceptional objects for this exceptional classification where all the prices are out of proportion.
Sometimes more mundane items can be a surprise: a mirror bought at a garage sale or old toys that you have forgotten in your wardrobe. That's why we also wanted to remind you that value is not only material. Sometimes an object can have great value without reaching such astronomical prices, at least for you.
But nothing prevents us from dreaming!
Speaking of dreams, which of these 14 objects would you like to own?
Magalie from CollecOnline.
