An 8th-century tortoiseshell vanity box, said to be a gift from the Tang Dynasty palace to Japan’s Emperor Shomu, will be auctioned in Hong Kong and may fetch more than HK$40 million ($5 million).
The octagonal box, measuring 35.6 centimeters across and embedded with mother-of-pearl and amber in shapes of flowers, is the highlight of Sotheby’s planned sale of antiques, gems and paintings on April 8.
The item had once resided at the repository of the Todaiji, or Great Eastern Temple, in the southern Japanese prefecture of Nara. Continue reading →
The American Idol judge, Simon Cowell, who is known for his extravagant lifestyle, has recently got a personal tanning salon built in his22 million dollar mansion so he can maintain the perfect bronzed appearance, the London Daily Mail reports.
Cowell, who is worth 188 million dollars, bought the property for $12 million nearly two years ago but razed the original structure to build his “dream home”.
Since then, Cowell has been busy renovating the two-storey mansion, and the most recent change in the mansion happens to be the installation of a solarium adjacent to the master bedroom with a full-length tanning machine and a smaller facial tanner.
Nubeo is a company known for jellyfish-shaped watches. In collaboration with the basketball star Kobe Bryant, this luxury watch brand creates a limited-edition line.
Composed by high-tech sport watches, the collection’s prices start at about $21,000 and topout at $285,000. The Black Mamba series, in honor of Mr. Bryant’s nickname, will be launched at Baselworld 2009, in Basel, Switzerland, and will go on sale this fall.
Ivan Castro, the jewelry designer who co-founded Nubeo in 2004, is a huge basketball fan and reached out to Mr. Bryant’s agent and marketing manager.
“Coco Before Chanel,†biopic of celebrated fashion designer Coco Chanel is based on book “L’Irreguliere†(The Nonconformist) by Edmonde Charles-Roux, directed and written by Anne Fontaine and Camille Fontaine.
Audrey Tautou stars as Gabrielle Chanel, known as Coco, before she became famous. Watch the trailer (in French) after the jump…
South of Fifth and Lamborghini Miami join forces to create the ultimate luxury experience and the result is that only seven of the 28 South of Fifth residences remain to be sold.
If you want to purchase one of the these last seven ocean front units you will receive a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder 2008, valued at 260,000 dollars.
The Terrafugia Transition, the first plausible flying car (or more precisely, a “roadable aircraft”), took its first official flight earlier this month.
The two-seat aircraft is able to fly 450 miles at over 115 miles per hour and is designed to transform from plane to car in less than 30 seconds.
The maiden voyage took place at the Plattsburgh International Airport in New York, with a retired U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel in the pilot’s seat. The flight followed six months of static, road, and taxi testing.
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As a car, the two-seat Transition is designed to be easy on garages and oncoming traffic–its wings fold up quite snugly.
In folded mode, the approximately 19-foot-long vehicle is 80 inches wide, and 6 feet, 9 inches high. As an airplane, it stands a few inches shorter and has a wingspan of 27 feet, 6 inches.
The vehicle runs off unleaded fuel from your run-of-the-mill gas station for both terrestrial and aerial travel, cruising at highway speeds on land and better than 115 miles per hour in the air.
But Woburn, Mass.-based Terrafugia still has a long road ahead of it. The vehicle that flew earlier this month is still just a proof of concept, and a production prototype has yet to be built, tested, and certified.
The company says it expects to make the first customer delivery of a Transition in 2011.
It will retail at a street price of $194,000 when it eventually goes on sale. But, you can reserve one now for just $10,000 at Terrafugia’s website.
Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld showcased his black take on power suiting for Chanel last week in Paris and one of the highlights was the Chanel Perspex Briefcase designed for working women.
The transparent briefcase comes with slots to hold a purse, lipstick, sunglasses, iPod and other ladies’ stuff. Source: Businessflogo
Belzberg Architects designed the Skyline Residence, which is perched atop a ridgeline in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California
The project consists ofa main house combined with a guest house. Both buildings are enclosed by a single folded surface with infill glazing and screened walls.
Another luxury watch signed by Elton John, to fight against Aids, will be presented by Chopard at the Baselworld 2009.
The new Chopard watch features a white or pink gold jeweled dial, jeweled bezel and a cocodrile leather bracelet, available in three different colours: pink, brown or black. It also has a quartz chronograph movement.
A portion of sales will be donated to Elton John Aids Foundation.
With Gnarls Barkley crooning through their earbuds, with the “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)”, some superstar athletes turn on the juice.
The women get a hand from world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe and hip hop dancer Sofia Boutella.
The men are supported by tennis ace Rodger Federer, Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Liverpool hot-shot Fernando Torres and Tony Parker (with his wife, Eva Longoria, that throw his trainers off the balcony of their high rise flat).
The design hotel EME Fusion in the heart of the old town of Seville, Spain, is only a stone’s throw from one of the World’s largest cathedrals and its famous bell tower, the Giralda.
The tasteful blend of ancient history and modern design in this 5 star hotel is absolutely captivating!
The hotel has 60 rooms and a unique gastronomic complex with 4 restaurants, bar, spa, terraces with panoramic views, swimming pools, a wellness zone and flexible and versatile spaces.
You know you’re in one of the top suites on a ship when it comes with a personal butler. Or, at least, that was the old rule. Now some of the world’s ritziest lines are promising butlers to all.
Luxury line Silversea Cruises Wednesday announced plans to roll out personal butler service for passengers in every cabin on every ship – something Azamara Cruises has touted since it launched two years ago.
According to Christian Sauleau, Silversea’s executive vice president, each butler assisted by a suite attendant is empowered to troubleshoot problems and provide special service touches. Continue reading →
Villa Altachiara is an exceptional home situated on the Promontory above Portofino, a stunning panoramic spot on the Tigullio Gulf.
The villa, one of the loveliest oases of charm in the world, belonged to the late rich countess Francesca Vacca Agusta.
Surrounded on three sides by the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, Villa Altachiara is perfumed by pine resin mingled with the aroma of the salt sea and flanked by the imperious wild beauty of the waves and cliffs.
The Victorian-style villa was built by Henry Herbert, fourth Earl of Carnavon, in the late 1800s.
Villa Altachiara has very elegant Victorian interiors that have been perfectly restored. Built on three floors, the 1,000 sqm home features 30 spacious rooms. They are all filled with light and graced with magnificent views of the open sea.
Italian agency, Della Spiga Immobili di Pregio manages the sale and negotiation of this gorgeous villa.
Royal Bank of Scotland cancelled a $45 million order for a luxury private jet that would have been used by its ousted chief executive and other executives if the bank had not needed a taxpayer bailout.
R.B.S. is majority-owned by the British government and is mired in a high profile row over a £16.6 million ($23.7 million), pension pot for the chief, Sir Fred Goodwin.
R.B.S. placed the order for the ultra-modern long-range Falcon 7Xworth $45 million about five years ago, and the plane was due to be delivered this year.
Indian carpet made of pearls and gems today fetched a record $5.5 million at the first series of auctions held by Sotheby’s in the Gulf state of Qatar.
The 5-foot-8-inch by 8-foot-8-inch Pearl Carpet of Baroda had been commissioned in 1865 by the Maharajah of the former Indian state of Baroda, possibly as a gift for the tomb of the prophet Mohammed at Medina, said Sotheby’s.
The carpet, with more than 1 million natural Basra seed pearls, had never been offered before at auction and was expected to fetch at least $5 million, said Sotheby’s.
With Baselworld 2009 not far off, Swiss watchmaker Concord has revealed tantalizing images of an avant garde new timepiece, the C1 Quantum Gravity. Continue reading →
Bang & Olufsen has launched a new expensive product, the 103-inch BeoVision 4-103. According to WhatHiFi it is touted by the company as “the most spectacular TV Bang & Olufsen has ever madeâ€.
The BeoVision 4-103 features Bang & Olufsen’s VisionClear System, that uses a probe to recalibrate the white, red, blue and green quality of the TV automatically every 120 hours.
It incorporates, beneath the screen, a new dedicated Beolab 10 active speaker system. Continue reading →
Businessman Angelito Araneta Jr, 21, commissioned his catering service to create a chocolate cake topped with 15 African diamonds and covered with 24-karat gold leaf.
Mr Araneta says he plans to sell the cake in Manila at 124,000 pesos ($13,480) to men for use as a marriage proposal gift.
Yes, the Fleur de Lys is a humongous Beverly Hills mansion, but on top of that, it is considered the most expensive estate in the world and pop star Mariah Carey and husband Nick Cannon are making a bid to buy it, according to Zillow.com.
It is listed for sale for $125,000,000 by Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker Previews International.
According do The Real Estalker, the faux French pile sits on 5+ acres of choice real estate and measures a boo-teek hotel-sized 35,046 square feet. Continue reading →
