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World’s Most Expensive Tires

In 2009, a British transportation museum paid a pretty penny for tires, but are they the most expensive tires in the world?

1929 Leyland Lion bus tires
$800 each

The Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum’s premier exhibit, a 1929 Leyland Lion bus, required new tires to make it roadworthy for the museum’s 50th anniversary. In order to replace the old and significantly cracked tires, the museum was eventually forced to order specialty tiles from America.

The Leyland Lion is the only surviving example of its model, the other three having been scrapped after serving as transport during World War II. This particular bus was used as a snowplow until it became the museum’s first acquisition around 1954.

Michelin PAX tires for Bugatti Veyron – $9,065 each

It makes some sense that the world’s most expensive car would have proportionately expensive tires. The car uses specialized Michelin PAX run-flat tires, which can be used for a short time after the tire has been punctured.

Michelin tires for Caterpillar 797 – $42,500 each

Truly the most expensive tires in the world, the Michelin 59/80R63 XDR tires required for the Caterpillar 797 dump trucks are a massive 13 feet tall and weigh 11,680 lbs. They are the largest tires in the world. These tires require 47 nuts to be attached to the axle. Six of these enormous tires can hold up to 1,375,000 lbs of truck and load.

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World’s Most Expensive Christmas Trees

Nothing says “Merry Christmas!” like a Christmas tree. Every few years, it seems, the world’s most expensive Christmas tree is outdecked, outjingled and outpriced by the most expensive Christmas tree in the world.

Soo Kee Jewellery Diamond Christmas Tree, 2007
US $1,005,000

Bugis Junction, a shopping mall in Singapore, may just have had the merriest Christmas in the world in 2007.

Soo Kee Jewellery produced the expensive tree, decking it with 21,798 diamonds (913 carats total), 3,762 crystal beads and 456 lights. The tree is nearly 20 feet tall and weighs in at over 7,000 pounds. Just remember that Christmas isn’t about how much money you can afford to spend decking the halls and giving gifts. That’s what they’ve been telling me, anyway.

Ginza Tanaka 24k gold Christmas Tree, 2008
US $1.6 million

This golden tree is adorned with 240 jewels—diamonds and strings of pearls included—and weighs in at 46 pounds total. That’s a far cry from Soo Kee Jewellery’s 7,000-pound, 20-foot Christmas tree. The gold tree was on display at the Ginza Tanaka jewelry shop in Shinsaibashi, Osaka throughout the 2008 holiday season.

Emirates Palace Christmas Tree, 2010
US $11.4 million

In 2010, the merriest Christmas goes to patrons of the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi, as their extravagant tree has smashed the previous record. While decked with over $11 million in jewelry from Style Gallery, the tree itself is merely a 13-foot faux evergreen. The jewels include 181 diamonds, pearls, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones. This is certainly a fitting decoration for one of the most expensive hotels in the world.

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World’s Most Expensive Vases

Some of the earliest pottery has been discovered in China, dating back to 9000 BC, and ceramic goods from the region can be traced back to the dynasties under which they were created. In fact, the first porcelain is believed to have been created under the Han dynasty from 202 BC to 220 AD. As China’s history is rich with beautiful ceramic art, it’s no surprise that the most expensive vases in the world are Chinese.

Ming dynasty vase – over US $10 million

The Ming dynasty ruled China from 1368 to 1644. That era in Chinese history saw the creation of a startling amount of carved lacquerwares, glazed porcelain wares, embroidered silks and works of art in a variety of other materials. The Empire of the Great Ming also produced a great number of forgeries designed to part unsuspecting purchasers from their wealth. This was such a problem, in fact, that guides were printed to help detect such forgery. We can be sure, then, that this vase is quite authentic.

Hailing from the time of Hongwu, the founder of the Ming dynasty, the expensive vase was most recently purchased at auction by Steve Wynn. The Las Vegas casino owner and insatiable art collector is often criticized by the art community for paying high prices for second-rate pieces, but this purchase is certainly an exception. The 14th century vase is decorated in copper red scrolling flowers and is, well preserved as it is, quite rare.

Mr. Wynn purchased the expensive vase at the Christie’s Imperial Sale in Hong Kong for 78,520,000 Hong Kong dollars. Rather than keep it locked away in his private collection, however, he returned the vase to China by donating it to a Macau museum.

Qianlong vase – over US $80 million

The Qing dynasty succeeded the Ming dynasty and ruled China until 1911. The Qianlong Emperor became the fifth emperor of the Qing dynasty in 1736 and, during his time in power, imperial supervisor Tang Ying authored an illustrated memoir called “Twenty Illustrations of the Manufacture of Porcelain.”

This 18th-century porcelain vase was inherited by a mother and son who, if reports are to be believed, have gone into hiding due to the £12 million in taxes they will be expected to pay after the vase, only expected to sell for £1.2 million, reached an amazing £53 million at auction.

The buyer was a wealthy Chinese industrialist and collector of antiquities.

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Most Expensive English Furniture

England’s long and storied history has produced one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, various masterful literary works and some equally masterful pieces of furniture.

The Harrington Commode—no, not that kind of commode; it’s a chest of drawers—broke a record for English furniture when it was sold at a Sotheby’s in London auction in late 2010. The chest is thought to have been crafted around 1770 by London cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale, whose Rococo and Neoclassical works informed the style of the period. The most expensive piece of English furniture is made of gilt-lacquered fustic, rosewood and tulipwood mounted with brass.

The chest sold for £3,793,250—just under US $6 million. That’s ove three times its estimate and £1 million more than the holder of the previous record, another of Chippendale’s works.

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