Billionaire's Stocking Fillers 2023: A Guide To Meaningful Gifts
By popular demand: our annual festive round-up of the best luxury and lifestyle gifts.
Artichoke Candleholder by Lola Montes Schnabel
We love this quirky candlestick by Lola Montes Schnabel, the daughter of filmmaker and painter Julian Schnabel and designer Jacqueline Schnabel. Schnabel’s best-known bodies of work include a series of portraits and paintings on tiles made from volcanic ash and clay from Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy, where she is based.
€3,900 | Nilufar Gallery, Milan
Fornasetti Panettone
What could be more festive on Christmas morning than a beautiful, candied-fruit studded Panettone for breakfast? For the fourth year running Italian atelier Fornasetti has collaborated with Davide Longoni bakery to produce the classical cylindrical Milanese cake in a beautiful limited edition architectural box. Starring on the lid is Fornasetti muse Lina Cavalieri, whose face resembles a celestial body.
US$140 | Fornasetti.com
La Petite Porte, Grand Cru Champagne
This Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru is the second sparkling wine to come out of the wine brand Porte Noire, led by The Wire and Luther star-turned-oenophile, Idris Elba in conjunction with the prestige school of Sanger. You will also find this delicious, crisp wine on the menu of Kings Cross-based restaurant Elba co-founded, which goes by the same name.
£50 | Harveynichols.com
Table Top Backgammon Set: The Chase Winter
This exquisite handcrafted backgammon set by Alexandra Llewellyn is at once a game and a work of art. It contains stone playing pieces and can be laser engraved with initials, dates or even a personal message. Reflecting the heart-pounding thrill of being pursued around a backgammon board by your opponent, the Table Top Backgammon Set launches with a choice of two designs, The Chase Summer and The Chase Winter.
£3,600 | Alexandrallewellyn.com
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the uncensored manuscript
Jhambo Ink has released a Collector’s Edition of the uncensored 13-chapter original version of Wilde’s famous book, including marginalia revealing editorial changes, most dealing with sexual content. It has been illustrated with seventeen original oil artworks by Gustavo Magalhães, with the Collector’s Edition limited to only 1000 hand numbered copies.
£248 | jhamboink.com and Marchpane Books, Cecil Court, London
Smoking Slippers
These hand embroidered evening slippers by British heritage brand Penelope Chilvers are a collaboration with SUJÁN, an Indian conservation hotel brand. A tenth of profits produced through the sales of the slippers will be donated to SUJÁN’s Tiger Conservation initiatives and projects in Ranthambhore, Rajasthan. Handmade in Spain, the deep green velvet echoes the Ranthambhore forest, embellished with an embroidery of a tiger in gold thread. The slipper is lined in a beautiful burnt orange leather, giving a nod to the big cat itself.
£289 | Penelopechilvers.com
Maillon Cushion, La Manufacture Cogolin
Elevate your festive entertaining with the charm of La Manufacture Cogolin Cushions. Meticulously crafted using traditional weaving techniques, these cushions seamlessly blend heritage and contemporary design. They are also sustainably produced, using ends of rolls of fabric and surplus yarns from rug orders upcyled by the atelier.
£1435 | manufacturecogolin.com
H24 eau de parfum by Hermès
H24 is the first men's perfume by Hermès, created by the world-famous 'nose', Christine Nagel. The olfactory notes are woody and aromatic, enveloping sage, moss, and warm and vibrant sclarene.
£97 | hermes.com
Bang & Olufsen Beosystem speakers
Bang & Olufsen's Beosystem sees a repurposed vintage turntable from 1972 inbuilt with cutting-edge digital technology. The speaker includes a Beogram 4000c turntable, restored in a triple copper tone aluminium finish in the tone of honey, ginger and amber, accompanied by a modern pair of Beolab 28 speakers.
US$65,000 | bang-olufsen.com
Recycled silver gemstones, The Rock Hound
Susi Smither, part-scientist, part-jeweler, and founder of The Rock Hound, uses silver from recycled NHS X-rays to make her popping jewellery creations. It gets casted then plated with nano-ceramic particles and cured in the oven, for a flash of fuchsia or kingfisher blue on the finger. A beautiful and sustainable Christmas gift which will be the talk of any cocktail party.
£300 | therockhound.com
Darcie Pyjamas
Treat yourself to a pair of these satin beauties with feather trim, the ultimate luxury for wearing out as well as in bed. Made by Nadine Merabi, a female-founded slow fashion business focused on timeless, conscious design.
£180 | Nadinemerabi.com
The Dalmore Select Edition 2005
With aromas of dark chocolate, salted caramel, antique leather, and rich orange citrus, cacoa, dark fruits, marzipan, and moist ginger cake. This expression has been matured in American white oak ex-Bourbon casks and enhanced by hand-selected Matusalem Sherry and Vintage 2005 Sherry casks, with an ABV of 49.3%, natural colour, and non-chill filtered.
£380 | The Whisky Shop