eric clapton

In the last 50 years guitars have made the transition from serviceable musical instruments to works of art. Collectible guitars have become hot items at auction and some have been enshrined at museums around the country. Guitars that have been touched by guitar gods are particularly valued. In the guitar world they don't get much godlier than Eric Clapton. Clapton is a rock icon whose work has stretched decades. Not only is he one of the best, he's played with the best and is forever enshrined as part of the history of rock and roll.

Clapton has auctioned off guitars twice before in service of his other passion, recovery. The upcoming auction at Bonhams, New York on March 9 will benefit The Crossroads Centre, Antigua, the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center he founded in 1998. The sale will feature more than 70 guitars and 70 amps, which have helped create Clapton's legendary sound. Although he has donated guitars before this is the first time that he has brought his historic amplifier collection to auction and even for a non-musician, it's pretty compelling stuff. After all, you can't have Clapton's arena-filling sound without an amp.

Bonhams has announced a major sale of guitars and other music equipment from guitar god Eric Clapton's collection. The sale will take place in New York on March 9, 2011 and proceeds will go to benefit The Crossroads Centre in Antigua. Crossroads is the addiction treatment center than Clapton founded on the island in 1998.

The sale will feature instruments and amps by Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Martin, Music Man and estimates range from $300-30,000. In addition to Clapton's guitars, the auction will also sell off guitars donated by other musicians includes Jeff Beck and J.J. Cale. The auction is being held in association with Wallace & Hodgson, who worked on the two previous Clapton/ Crossroads Guitar auctions in 1999 and 2004.

The sky's the limit when cost is no object. Case in point: celebrated blues guitarist and recording legend Eric Clapton, who has reportedly placed a very special order from Ferrari.

Clapton's a known Ferrari aficionado, and upon visiting the factory recently in Maranello, apparently fell in love with the new 458 Italia. Just one thing: instead of the V8 engineered for the car, he wants one with the V12 from the larger 599 GTB Fiorano – the same engine, more or less, that was in the Enzo, we might add.

Ferrari has, according to reports, agreed to build the special supercar according to Clapton's specifications. The question on our minds is whether the car will end up sounding better than its owner.

A killer collection of guitars owned by some of the great rock gods are the starring attraction in Christie's' Rock and Pop Memorabilia sale in London on June 24. While George Harrison's acoustic Yamaha guitar from 1994 signed by the Beatle is the priciest at an estimated $72,000 - $86,000, in aesthetic terms it's the least interesting lot. We much prefer the collection of instruments owned by members of The Who (above), in particular Pete Townshend and John Entwistle. The top pick is a custom made mahogany Gibson SG used by Townshend during the band's 1971 U.S. tour, estimated at $29,000 - $43,000. An newer acoustic guitar of his meanwhile is estimated at $8,500 - $11,500. Entwistle's Peter Cook Custom bass from the 1970s is estimated at $21,500 - $29,000, while his 1962 Fender Precision bass is estimated at $11,500 - $14,500. Eric Clapton's 1996 Fender Stratocaster 50th Anniversary edition with a gold-plated body is pricey at $29,000 - $43,000; much better deals are to be had with Marc Bolan of T.Rex's 1968 Fender Custom Telecaster and an early 1970s Gibson Les Paul owned by the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones, both estimated at $14,500 - $22,000.

From Homes and Property UK:
--Singer Eddy Grant has listed Bayleys, his 15-bedroom Barbados plantation house for £19 million (around $35 million). The listing is here.
--Guinness heir Henry Channon has listed his nine-bedroom, Thameside home on Cheyne Walk, shown above, for £25 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Post:
--While in New York City, Jude Law is staying in a downtown penthouse at the Novare building on West Fourth Street. He is renting the three-bedroom 3,500-square-foot unit with 20-foot ceilings and a terrace for an undisclosed price. The apartment is also listed for sale at $7.8 million with Reid Price of Brown Harris Stevens. The listing is here.
--Matt Damon has been spotted in and around the Belnord rental building at West 86th Street and Broadway.
--A five-story Gramercy Park townhouse is back on the market for $12 million. It was listed at $18.5 million price three years ago. The listing is here.

From Shelter Pop:
--A look inside Speidi's (Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt) new love nest courtesy of the Real Estalker.
--Peer inside the loft of Emily Robison, of the Dixie Chicks.


From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--via Curbed, retired tech exec Lawrence Mueller and his wife Mary Kay have dropped the price of their three-bedroom condo at 15 Central Park West. It was listed at $16.5 million and is now at $15.5 million.
--via the NY Times, Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, founder of Dune Capital, and son of Bob Mnuchin, is looking to unload his duplex apartment at 740 Park. The five-bedroom spread is being shopped around with a $37.5 million asking price.
--via Curbed, the West Village townhouse that was once home to writer/urban activist Jane Jacobs has sold for $3.3 million after four months on the market.
--Whoopi Goldberg has gone into contract to sell her two-bedroom New York City loft.

--The triplex penthouse at 895 Park that belonged to the late movie producer and clothing entrepreneur Charles Evans has finally found a buyer. It was purchased for $15 million by Robert Weisz, the CEO of the commercial real estate company the RPW Group, and his wife Cristina.

--via the NY Observer, Brett Icahn, the son of billionaire Carl Icahn, had paid $2.9 million for a penthouse duplex at the Piano Factory building on West 46th Street.
--via the NY Observer, Italian mogul and former Formula One boss Flavio Briatore is renting out his four-bedroom apartment at the Plaza for around $65,000 per month. The apartment was up for sale for $38 million.

--Amalgamated Bank CEO Derrick Cephas and his wife Donna paid $4.425 million for a five-bedroom apartment at 610 West End Avenue.
--Martha Stewart's daughter Alexis Stewart has put her duplex loft at 27 North Moore Street back on the market again. She tried to sell the apartment for $12.4 million in both 2007 and 2008. It is now listed for $12.95 million.
--via the NY Observer, actor Daniel Radcliffe has paid $5.65 million for a five-bedroom New York City townhouse.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--"Soul Train" creator Don Cornelius has listed a two-bedroom, post-and-beam house in the Beverly Hills, Calif. postal area for $1.95 million. The listing is here. He also paid $1.475 million to purchase a 3,499-square-foot house on a flag-shaped lot in Los Angeles' Beverly Crest area.
--Author and comedian Steve Harvey has his 19-room mansion in Plano, Texas on the market for $3.5 million. The listing is here.


From Fanhouse:
--Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn has listed his home in Avon Lake, Ohio for $775,000. The listing is here.

From Rented Spaces:
--Short on rent? Here are the details on throwing a gold party.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
--LAPD Chief Bratton and his wife Rikki Klieman have reduced the price of their Los Feliz home to $1.49 million.
--Dr. Richard Ellenbogen who has starred on 'Dr. 90210' has listed his Sunset Strip home for $3.495 million. The listing is here.
--Rocky Oaks Estate, a 37-acre Malibu estate, has come on the market for $65 million. The listing is here.

From SocketSite:
--Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has purchased a San Francisco home for $2.4 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Gisele Bündchen has gone into contract on her penthouse in New York's West Village. The latest listing price of $4.5 million was less than half the original, September 2007 price tag of $10.9 million. She bought the condo in 2002 for nearly $3 million. Her townhouse is still on the market for $13.95 million.
--Eric Clapton is renting out his 45-acre Antigua estate for $50,000 a week.

From CNBC:
--America's most luxurious golf homes.

Recession or no, certain truly unique and exclusive handcrafted luxury items remain in very high demand. The Fall issue of WSJ., The Wall Street Journal's glossy magazine, reports that there's currently a five-year waiting list for the custom $175,000 shotguns made by Italian master Tullio Fabbri. Fabbri marries high-tech fabrication - the guns' locking mechanisms are coated in diamond dust to increase durability - with classic Brescian engraving on the metalwork that looks like embroidered lace. He has made guns for celebs like Steven Spielberg, Eric Clapton and King Juan Carlos of Spain, as well as Mexican-born pop singer Thalia, pictured above with her Fabbri 20-gauge. Fabbri's father began the business in 1965 in a small shop in the Valle Trompia, a legendary valley in northern Italy that has been home to gunmakers since the 16th century. Fabbri only makes 30 guns per year, hence the waiting list. Italian artisans spend 400 - 600 hours etching the metalwork on each gun, which can add $50,000 or more to the price. Thalia's husband, music mogul Tommy Mottola, tells the magazine that "Tullio's work is as good as a Picasso."

The other day we told you about Karl Lagerfeld's bespoke trunk from Louis Vuitton which holds the Chanel kingpin's collection of 20 iPods and a speaker system. In the same vein, we now present Eric Clapton's ultra-luxurious, custom-made crocodile guitar case from Hermès (above). Hermès also has a Special Orders workshop which can produce everything from a handbag to a bespoke interior for a Rolls-Royce, and is if anything more exclusive than Vuitton's atelier.

Clapton's case was specially made to hold his Martin 00028 EC acoustic guitar, the rock star's signature model ("EC" are his initials) which he helped to design. The shell of the case, which is covered in the world's finest matte-finish crocodile skin, is handmade of poplar wood from Nazareth, Pennsylvania and the whole is lined in blue silk velvet. While we don't know what Clapton paid for the one-of-a-kind case, it is likely to have cost at least $100,000.

The other day we reported on the world records set at Antiqorum's recent $8.5 million Rolex auction, where the top-priced timepiece fetched $248,000. At Sotheby's Important Watches auction on April 23, however, that record was shattered by the sale of an ultra-rare 1971 "Albino" Rolex Daytona that formerly belonged to rock & roll icon Eric Clapton. Eclipsing its pre-sale estimate of $100,000 - $150,000, the Daytona went for a whopping $505,000 including buyer's premium.

Though the total proceeds from the Sotheby's sale, $6,588,451, were far less than Antiquorum's, the Clapton sale set a record for the Daytona and was the second-highest price ever achieved at auction for a Rolex watch. This model is known as the "Albino" because both the background and subsidiary dials are in a monochrome silver color, as opposed to the usual contrasting variations found on more common examples.

The second through fifth highest prices paid at the Sotheby's auction were all for Patek Philippes, ranging from $445,000 - $217,000. The sixth highest was also a Rolex, a so-called "James Bond" 1959 Submariner, which brought in $211,000.