London -- All is vanity, saith the preacher. And it costs $146,000, saith the Christie's auctioneer -- if your vanity is the car registration plate "1 RR."
That can be read as "One Rolls Royce," and in Britain at least it makes the license about as valuable as a Rolls Royce Silver Spirit 3, which costs $141,000 or so before taxes.
Christie's annual auction of the "Classic Collection" of 80 registration "marques" for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency put the equivalent of $2.4 million -- a record -- into the British treasury yesterday.
These are much the same vanity tags for which Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration charges a premium of just $25, although here buyers can keep them forever and pass them down through the generations.
"We reckon the American system must be losing millions of dollars," Roger Williams, an official of the British licensing agency, said cheerily. He helped launch the first auction in 1989.
So far the auctions have raised about $243 million for the British treasury. The licensing agency has a special development group that sorts out the most desirable registrations -- those that spell out a name or can be interpreted as meaning something like One Rolls Royce -- "for the true connoisseur."
These "truly prestigious and unique" combinations become the Classic Collection, which is sold by Christie's.
For those on a budget who want something different, the agency also offers combinations considered less desirable, starting at $344 plus an assignment fee of $125. There are also regional auctions of lesser vanity plates.
Christie's auction room in posh South Kensington was packed with about 750 bidders yesterday, a good third of them squashed together like standees at a sell-out Pavarotti concert.
Bidding was fierce, tenacious and heated, a virtual bonfire of the vanities (apologies to Tom Wolfe).
Property dealer Terry Mason burst into tears when he won an emotional battle with about eight other bidders for "1 TM" with a bid of $36,117, including Christie's 10 percent buyer's fee.
"I would have gone to 50,000 pounds," he said, fiercely. That's $78,000.
"I'll never sell it," he said.
He says he'll pass it on to his son, who is also Terry Mason. He's a car dealer, so it'll come in handy some day.
Some British registration numbers already have been passed down through several generations, rather like noble titles. There is also a brisk secondary market in desirable "marques," and a fair bit of speculation.
The burly gentlemen who bought "1 RR" also bought "1J" for $103,191 and "M15 SPY" for $7,739. On British plates, "one" can appear as "1" or "I," and thus become a letter. "MI5" is Britain's CIA.
The big buyer declined to identify himself.
Christie's representatives reckon he's some sort of dealer. In 1993, he paid about $318,000 for "KINGS," the most ever bid for a vanity registration in Britain. "KINGS" apparently has never been on a car.
Neither has ELVIS, which was bought by one Lane Anson, a lifelong Presley fan, in 1990 for about $60,000, said John Taylor, a professional tag buyer who works for an outfit called "NEW REG."
He bought "1 DS" with a $41,276 bid for a client who already has "2 DS," "5 DS" and "6 DS" on his fleet of collector's cars, which includes a Porsche, a Ferrari and a Bentley.
"DIANA" did not go to the Princess of Wales, but to another Diana, 41, who popped into London on a train for a bit of fun and paid $26,000 for her namesake registration. She refused to reveal her her last name.
Christie's press officer Katherine Higgins said the auction house was "delighted" that yesterday's sale brought in so much money. She said it was a new record for classic registrations. But then, the total has gone up every year since it began in 1989.
The Bureau Chief of the Baltimore Sun's London Bureau was tempted to bid on "1 BS" which went for a trifling $37,837. But he desisted when he realized it could also be read "I BS."