Clive Christian unveils world's most expensive fragrance bottle

It comes in a cut glass crystal flacon topped off with a large diamond, an 18-carat gold collar and contains half a litre of perfume. The fragrance will be sold exclusively at top store Harrods and costs nearly €170,000, a price-tag that is expected to make it a Christmas gift for the super-rich.

Mohamed Al Fayed, owner of the London-based luxury store, told news reporters he expected the perfume would be purchased by figures such as the Sultan of Brunei and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who is best-known as the owner of Chelsea football club.

Only ten flacons of this limited edition fragrance will be sold. Made to order, it will be available in Clive Christian No 1 fragrance for Men or Women, depending on demand.

The Clive Christian No 1 collection is already one of the most expensive in the world. Both the fragrances contain notes of bergamot, cardamom and Indian jasmine to give a subtle, yet distinctive scent.

To differentiate them, the men's fragrance contains notes of maialis, ylang ylang and cedarwood, while the women's fragrance contains lily of the valley, lemon and carnation to give a more floral and feminine scent.

Usually a 30ml flacon of fragrance retails for around €1900.

But what adds tremendously to the price-tag of this special edition fragrance is the packaging. In fact referring to it as 'packaging' might be doing it an injustice.

Created in conjunction with Clive Christian by France-based cut-glass specialist Baccarat Crystal, this is one flacon that probably will not be disguarded - even by the mega rich.

Indeed, notching up the value of the perfume considerably is the thumbnail-sized five carat diamond that is encrusted in the bottle. Suggestions are that it could even serve as a decanter after the perfume has been used.

To top it all the price even includes special delivery, which entails being delivered to the door in a Bentley.