We humans have always placed considerable value on smelling nice, often going to great lengths, and great expense, to acquire the finest perfumes and fragrances with which to douse ourselves.
The Ancient Egyptians traveled far and wide in search of scented oils and unguents; Alexander the Great sent emissaries all the way to Oman to procure Arabian incense; while by the 1st Century AD the citizens of Rome were sniffing their way through an estimated 2,800 tonnes of frankincense and 550 tonnes of myrrh annually (in 54 AD the Emperor Nero spent the modern equivalent of $100,000 on scent for a single party.)
Even the notoriously extravagant Nero, however, might have balked at the cost of Parfum V1, a fragrance that is generally considered to be not only the most exclusive in the world, but also by some distance the most expensive.
Blended by legendary English perfumer Arthur Burnham for fashion house Gianni Vive Sulman, the fragrance — suitable for both men and women — was inspired by the Phantom V1 Rolls-Royce. Just as only 173 of the latter were ever made, so Parfum V1 was, on its issue in 1998, limited to 173 bottles, each costing a staggering $84,000.

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