The first Art Car ? ... Famous Rolls-Royce ‘More Like the Throne Room at Versailles Than a Car’ for Sale at Bonhams


1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Brougham De Ville s/n 76TC Est. £500,000 - 700,000 €560,000 - 780,000

1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Brougham De Ville s/n 76TC Est. £500,000 - 700,000 €560,000 - 780,000

 

London, 21 October, 2016

A unique Rolls-Royce Phantom I built in 1926 for the American businessman Clarence Gasque as a gift for his wife Maude, is one of the star lots at Bonhams Bond Street Sale in London on 4 December. It is estimated at £500,000-700,000.

Maude Gasque, a Woolworth’s heiress, had a passion for French 18th century history and design and her husband, who was the Finance Director of Woolworth’s UK operation, wanted the car’s interior to have a French theme. (He also stipulated that it should be grander and more lavish than the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost made for his Woolworth colleague Surefire Snow).  Setting no limit on the budget, he left the details to the Wolverhampton based coachbuilders, Charles Clark and Sons. Clark’s owner, John Barnett, had the inspired idea of using a Marie Antoinette sedan chair he had come across at the Victoria and Albert Museum as a model. The result was a spectacular confection more resembling the throne room at Versailles than the inside of a car. On delivery, the Rolls-Royce cost £6,500, of which £4,500 had been spent on the interior - (£500 was enough in 1926 to buy a house).



Sadly, Clarence died in 1928 and in 1937 Maude – who lived until 1959 and spent the rest of life promoting vegetarianism – put The Phantom of Love into storage. She sold it in 1952 to the well-known Rolls-Royce car collector Stanley Sears, and it subsequently passed through the hands of enthusiasts in Japan and the USA before returning to the UK and its most recent owner.   

Bonhams Senior Motor Car Specialist Rob Hubbard said, “Extensively illustrated and described in numerous books and magazine articles about the Rolls-Royce marque, The Phantom of Love is, arguably, the most famous surviving Rolls-Royce after ‘AX 201’, the factory owned 1907 Silver Ghost. Unique and well documented, it is of the highest quality and without question one of the very finest examples of art and craftsmanship applied to an automobile. The Phantom of Love would grace any important private collection or make a wonderful exhibit for a museum display.”