The holidays are coming up and the UK’s Hallmark Jewelers are ringing in the season with the most expensive Christmas ornament in the world.

Adorned with 500 diamonds—three of them one carat apiece—arranged along a snowflake pattern and orbited by 188 rubies, The World’s Most Valuable Christmas Bauble, as they call it, is a truly exquisite and unique piece of holiday décor.

Work on the Bauble began on Boxing Day (December 26th, for stateside readers) 2008 and took almost a year to complete. The two halves of the interior orb were cast in London’s Hatton Garden Jewellery Quarter. The bulb was unveiled at a VIP gala and its designer, Mark Hussey, plans to display it in his Titchfield store should a buyer not be available.

The Christmas Bauble is valued at £82,000—over US $136,000.

The subtitle on the website of Robin Antar’s Antar Studios inc. proclaims his work as “Realism in Stone.” Antar’s work consists mostly of mundane objects such as denim jackets, potato chip bags, tubes of toothpaste and even M&Ms bags rendered in stone. While you can’t drink from it, Antar’s “Soda Can” is likely the most expensive soda can in the world.

The costly can is carved from a single block of marble, polished and capped with a sculpted, silver-painted lid. Antar chose to carve a slightly crushed can rather than a boring, pristine can. At 10” by 18”, it’s not the largest of Antar’s oversized works, but it’s still larger than your average soda can. It weighs in at 150 lbs.

The most expensive soda can is valued at $36,000.

Yesterday and Today with the “butcher cover”

Yesterday and Today was the Beatles’ twelfth US release, a collection of tracks from LPs and singles that hadn’t been released in the US. While the band didn’t appreciate the mishmash approach Capitol Records took with the album, they were able to exert some creative control over the cover—at least until it was banned. Now that cover has become the most expensive Beatles memorabilia in the world.

The original “butcher cover” features the quartet dressed as butchers, with slabs of meat and parts of plastic baby dolls strewn across their laps and shoulders. It was part of a 1966 shoot by photographer Robert Whitaker and, according to Capitol Records president Alan W. Livingston, it was Paul McCartney who insisted that it be used as the album’s cover. Unfortunately, retailer complaints led to Capital recalling the 750,000 copies of the album and pasting over the cover with a more agreeable photo.

To celebrate the remastered release of the Beatles’ back catalogue, the Saint Giles Street Gallery together with the British Beatles Fan Club put together an exhibit full of rare Beatles imagery in October 2009. Called The “Eleven Million Dollar Picture” Show, it was named after the printer’s proof of the infamous butcher cover, upon which John Lennon wrote, “here’s the famous banned butcher cover. You can sell it for $11 million dollars.”

The Saint Giles Gallery, of course, had the proof up for sale for $11 million.

The world’s most expensive piece of furniture isn’t a bed, a chair or even a couch—it’s a cabinet. Blurring the line between art and craft, the Badminton Cabinet is truly a unique item.

The Badminton Cabinet (or Badminton Chest) was commissioned by Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort, at the age of 19. It took thirty experts six years to create and is named after the Duke’s seat of power, Badminton House in Gloucestershire, where it sat until it was auctioned by his descendents in the late 20th century.

The ebony cabinet is over 12 feet tall and features scenes rendered in pietre dure—the arrangement of finely cut, polished and colored stones. Among the inlaid stones are a number of semiprecious stones.The clock face set at the top of the cabinet is marked with fleurs-de-lis.

The Badminton Cabinet became the most expensive piece of furniture in the world when it was auctioned for $15.1 million in 1990 and retained its status when it was auctioned again in 2004, this time for $36.7 million.

Imagine you’re sitting in your Eileen Gray “Dragons” chair, sipping a glass of Dalmore 62 Highland Malt Scotch Whisky. Where do you put your feet? Unless you somehow missed the title, you already know the answer—the world’s most expensive stool.
Sold by a jewelry store in China’s Jiangsu province, this expensive stool is made of [...]

Tiffany lamps are a special kind of Art Nouveau lamp made with glass shades. Their history begins in 1895, when the first lamp was produced by the Tiffany Glass Company—later known as Tiffany Studios. They were not, however, designed by stained glass artist and company founder Louis Comfort Tiffany, as has been thought until recently. [...]

Want to own the most expensive Xbox 360 in the world? Replace the boring old faceplate with this one and you’ll have it.
This unique faceplate was auctioned on eBay in 2005. Made of 999.9 ounces of solid 24k gold, the faceplate was cast with access to all the ports and receivers necessary to enjoy [...]

French luxury firm S. T. Dupont—no relation to the chemical company—has been dealing in extravagance since 1872, when it was founded by Simon Tissot Dupont. Recently, for instance, they created a line of accessories inspired by the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale. This year, they’ve produced the world’s most expensive lighter.
Part of the company’s [...]

The world’s most expensive garbage cans are the work of contemporary pop artist Sylvie Fleury.
Created in a limited edition of twenty-five pieces, these garbage cans are made of steel pressed with gold leaf. Each one is stamped with “SF 2003” and its individual number on the underside. Number 25 was made available at Phillips de [...]

Awhile back, we put together an inflation-adjusted list of the Most Expensive Movies Ever Made. Of course, it’s hard to call a $100 million film the most expensive movie ever made when movies regularly exceed twice as much nowadays. So, without further ado (or inflation adjustment), we present the top five most expensive movies ever [...]

Netbooks, smaller and less powerful laptops meant to be used in conjunction with a host of web-based applications, entered the public consciousness with the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Association’s goal of distributing the ultraportable computers throughout developing countries. Now netbooks like Asus’ Eee PC and Acer’s Aspire One are starting to overtake the laptop [...]

A chair belonging to late and great French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent has just made history as the world’s most expensive chair.
The founder of the eponymous YSL luxury brand, Saint Laurent died in June of 2008 just a few days after marrying his partner and co-founder, Pierre Bergé.
The expensive armchair had belonged to [...]

If you’re an aging bachelor and billionaire looking to wed someone half your age, you may want to look into expensive engagement rings. One such individual’s proposal to an ex-model involved a $1.5 million engagement ring. That may seem way out there, but it’s not even close to the most expensive ring in the world.

The [...]

How much do you love the game of pool? Do you love it more than your car? More than your house? Well, thanks to Vincent Facquet, you now have the option to really vote with your wallet by buying the world’s most expensive pool table.

The Luxury Billiard is a 117-by-67-inch table with a 100-by-50-inch playing [...]

Bullet Forge, an online retailer of custom bullets, may be offering the most expensive bullet in the world.
The retailer sells gold bullets, platinum bullets and, of course, a whole lot of silver bullets. Their premier offering, however, is this 45 ACP hollow-point made of 14-karat white gold. Mounted within the hollow-point are ninety diamonds surrounding [...]

Starting in 2011, J. R. R. Tolkien fans across the globe will be able to see two of the world’s most expensive Tolkien books in person. GTC AG, a Swiss company, has recently acquired both books and is planning an exhibition that will bring them to the general public.
In early December, GTC AG acquired a [...]

The most expensive iPhone app ever sold was one aptly called “I Am Rich”—one of the first apps to be offered on iTunes. It consisted of a small icon with the subtext “I Am Rich.” Clicking on the icon would fill the screen with a large, ruby red gem on a red and black background. [...]

You’ve probably spent hours in frustration trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Maybe you’ve even solved it a few times. Maybe you’ve even figured out how to solve the thing consistently. Wouldn’t you feel smarter, though, if you solved the most expensive Rubik’s Cube in the world?
Yeah, I thought so.
The Masterpiece Cube, created by Fred [...]

‘Tis the season the empty your wallet—as if it wasn’t empty enough already. Despite any global economic crises or whatnot, this year marks the unveiling of yet another world’s most expensive Christmas tree.
Outdoing last year’s tree, a million-dollar Soo Kee Jewellery masterpiece displayed at the Bugis Junction shopping mall in Singapore, Ginza Tanaka’s 24k gold [...]

Broadway theatre has its roots in the very end of the 18th century, when New York’s first theatre companies were formed. Nowadays, Broadway audiences can expect to see a mixture of well known television and movie stars and stage actors who only play bit parts outside of theatre. Considering the salaries commanded by film actors, [...]

If you’re the kind of guy who manages to cut himself with a safety razor, the world’s most expensive razor is not for you. If you have steady hands, an appreciation of fine craftsmanship and the kind of budget that lets you buy a $30,000 razor, though, then you may want to take a look [...]

In 1966, a twenty-something named Buster Warenski decided that he’d like to make his own knife. Forty years later, he is considered one of the greatest knife makers of the last century. At the age of thirty, he became one of the handful of knife makers to join the Knifemakers Guild. He ended up serving [...]

Does your purse-ridden poodle get hives just looking at a standard doghouse? If so, then he may be in luck as the world’s most expensive doghouse will appeal to even the princeliest pup’s sensibilities.
This unique doghouse, featuring the face of Japan’s famous feline, was created by Sanrio for a sales event at a department store [...]

Originally released in 1952 as a collection of body parts and accessories that could be attached to a real potato (or many other fruits and vegetables), Mr. Potato Head has become one of the most widely recognized toy brands in the US. It was more than ten years before a plastic potato body was added [...]

Watch collecting may be one of the most expensive hobbies in the world, but it’s also one of the most rewarding. Many antique timepieces are a testament to the brilliance of early and modern innovators.
Vacherin Constantin’s Tour de l’Ile – $1.5 million
Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin marked its 250th anniversary in 2005 with the world’s most [...]