By then, few Afghans could afford them, but the capital was full of foreigners passing through for whom prices as low as $100 a canvas (ranging into the low thousands for larger pieces) were a steal for fine art.
Suits cost $250 to $2,500 at Empire; Mr. Asaf does not sell the least expensive suits, with the cheapest cloth, to overseas clients, for whom prices start at $450.
They are the sort for whom price hardly matters.
The top-elite travel market, he explained, is occupied by people for whom "price is not an object".
In the early 1920s the General Electric Company suggested to the Ingersoll-Rand Company, for whom Price was working, that they cooperate in the building of a diesel-electric locomotive.
When insurance marketplaces open on Oct. 1, most of those shopping for coverage will be low- and moderate-income people for whom price is paramount.
He predicts strong growth for Caterpillar's generator sales to a "premium" market of users for whom price is no object when it comes to reliable backup energy.
Analysts expect 3-D tolevision to go through the same curve, initially attracting first adopters for whom price is little or no object and gradually moving out to other affluent and then middle-class homes as sets become cheaper and programmers create enough 3-D fare.
But a playhouse with a hit show will find both sorts of customers clamouring on the forecourt: the increasingly severe divide in pricing is an attempt to make sense of the unusual situation of having demand for the same product from those for whom price is no object, and those to whom it is the first concern.
Product manager Simon Hanley said: "Complementing our lineup of existing products, these models are ideal for home and small office customers who want to print everyday documents, such as recipes, homework, emails and maps, and for whom price and convenience are key factors.
Most crucially, he has the opportunity to meet some of the prominent figures of his time, among them John Gielgud, W. H. Auden, Vivien Leigh, Robert Frost and, in one memorable scene, the young Brigitte Bardot, whom Price improbably encounters in an almost empty Roman cinema, where one of her own films is being screened.
