If there was ever a celebrity who was well known for wearing glasses, it would have to be Elton John. Born in 1947 and so a long time before alternatives such as laser surgery became available to correct myopia, Elton started wearing glasses from a very early age.
Born into a very modest household, in his younger days, he would depend on the national health service for his spectacles. Perhaps it was the lack of fashion spectacles that were available from the service that instilled in him the desire for more flamboyant eyewear.
With the debut album Goodbye Yellow Brick Rd., Elton’s path to fame and subsequent riches began as did the start of his huge glasses collection. Nobody really knows exactly how many pairs of glasses Elton has bought and worn over his career, one of the earliest comments that he made about his spectacles collection was in 2002 when he claimed to own over 2000 pairs of glasses. More recently in an interview with BBC radio two, he increased this estimate to over 20,000 pairs of glasses-probably the largest privately owned glasses collection in the world. He was quoted in the interview as saying that he would rather buy eyeglasses than any other high-tech gadgets and will likely continue to do so.
Elton John is not only known for the vast quantity of glasses that he owns, but also for the outrageous styles of glasses that he has been known to wear for his stage shows and public outings. The classic pair of glasses that really started his reputation for being prepared to wear almost any attention-grabbing spectacles were the ostrich feather-festooned glasses that accompanied his feather boa outfit on the Capt. fantastic tour. Another pair of glasses made famous on the Capt. fantastic tour was comprised of 57 individual lights that when ignited spelled-his name and were bright enough to be seen from the back of the concert hall.
His fascination for glasses extended also into his artistic life when he premiered the play “Elton John’s Glasses” in Watford in 1997. This comedy was well-received by the drama critics and continued on tour for the next year, eventually finishing at the London’s Queens Theatre on July 11, 1998. He had managed to combine three of his great loves in one outing: soccer, glasses and the dramatic arts.
As Elton has aged somewhat gracefully, so has his taste in the glasses that he wears in public. Recent sightings of Elton wearing glasses have shown a much more conservative style when worn in public, and even his stage shows are featured a much less flamboyant style of spectacles.
Obviously, his glasses collection has been expensive to accrue, but no doubt Elton can afford it and continues to add to it. Not known for his frugal lifestyle, he has been known to spend as much as 30 million pounds in under two years supporting a lavish lifestyle. This included spending over £293,000 on flowers in under a year, and when asked about it he replied: “Yes, I like flowers”.
It is difficult to estimate the cost of the value of the glasses that Elton has purchased over the span of his 40-year career, but if he can spend that much on flowers in less than a year, it is most likely that he has spent considerably more than this on his glasses over the years. Many of his glasses now reside in other collections or displays, with some of the most famous glasses insured for up to £5000 each.
The highest price paid at auction for a pair of Elton John’s glasses in recent times, was in 2010 when the pair mentioned above that spelt out his name in 57 lights were purchased by the Hard Rock Cafe for almost $17,000. This was a bit of an exception however, as typically when is glasses come up for sale at auction, they sell in the range of $1-$5000. The other pair mentioned above with the feather trimmed glasses lenses, although iconic in the history of Elton John’s glasses, sold in the same auction for just $4000.
Adding it all up though, it would still imply that Elton’s glasses collection today could well be worth in excess of $50 million. If you were to buy normal glasses online for this amount of money, you could fill a warehouse the size of four football fields.