Honorary Titles or Non-Fungible Tokens ?

Apparently the NFT era has peaked but when did this concept originate ?  Does it really require the blockchain or did it morph from someone telling a story, selling a dream ?

https://archive.org/details/vicandsadeotr/Vic_and_Sade_43_0104_x_Honorary_Titles_for_Sale.mp3

Vic describes them as "A sort of intangible commodity" - that sounds like an NFT to me sans blockchain.

Vic

Sade:  "Well, what a dandy red-hot way to spend 35 cents"

Sade

Sade almost always had to be the bad guy.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm