Thursday - July 05, 2012

ROLLS ROYCE AUCTION

WOW!  What else can I say?

This is one nice automobile. Early Rolls. What’s not to like?

I would sure love to get a ride in one of these.

Note to Drew.  I am mindful of what you wrote (with great accuracy) on the early models and safety etc. Would that also apply here?
It doesn’t look as though it would.  I’d guess they built the Rolls a lot better then the average production line models of the later years.

The most magnificent Rolls-Royce ever built: Ivory and silver fittings, silk door panels and a china tea service… £5m salute to opulence and British craftsmanship

Unique Silver Ghost known as ‘The Corgi’ after being copied by toy maker

Price driven sky-high as two enthusiasts duelled in £100,000 increments

Hammer fell at £4.7m to anonymous buyer - more than twice £2m estimate

Six-cylinder, 7.3l vehicle in immaculate condition with perfect provenance

Originally bought by a man from South Croydon in 1912 for around £1,000

Put up for sale at Bonhams after latest owner was killed in a road accident

By VANESSA ALLEN

It manages just six miles to the gallon and has a top speed of only 60mph.

But this 100-year-old Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost has zoomed into the world record books, selling at auction for almost £5million following a fierce bidding war.

It was originally bought for £1,000 in 1912 (almost £93,000 in today’s money) but has now gone under the hammer for £4,705,500, making it the most expensive Rolls-Royce ever sold at auction.

Its gleaming interior fittings are made of silver and ivory, while the door panels are embroidered silk, with brocade tassels attached to silk window shades for privacy.

The passenger footrest hides a full picnic set for four, a china tea service, complete with an alcohol-fuelled burner and kettle to heat the water, and a set of six decanters – three in sterling silver and three in leather-wrapped glass.

The sale took place at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex on Friday. Auctioneers had expected it to sell for around £2million and were astonished when the bidding between two rival collectors topped £4million.

James Knight, from Bonhams auctioneers, said: ‘There were three bidders, then one of them dropped out at £2.3million and we thought it would end there.

Unlike most car enthusiasts of his time, Mr Stephens, from Croydon, South London, asked the makers not to include a glass division window between the driver and the passengers as he wanted to drive it himself rather than rely on a chauffeur.

The car even had an early speedometer – an important addition given that a 20mph speed limit was introduced in 1912.

The car’s distinctive cream and green design echoed the luxury ‘Pullman’ Railway carriages of the time, and it was known as a Double Pullman Limousine.

But it was nicknamed ‘the Corgi Silver Ghost’ in the 1960s after the toy-maker based its Silver Ghost toy car on this model.

Mr Stephens’s car is believed to be the only one of its kind to survive with its full interior and bodywork, as many Rolls-Royces from the era were converted into ambulances during the First World War.

Auctioneer Bonhams said: ‘It is a statement of refinement, grace and gentility that for many defines the qualities and the Edwardian period in which Rolls-Royce established the unsurpassed reputation it still enjoys today.’

The identity of the anonymous telephone bidders has not been revealed but sadly Bonhams has confirmed the car will now be leaving Britain once more.

It left Britain in 1992 after it was bought by a US enthusiast. A Texas lawyer bought it from him in 2007 for £1.9million and kept it until 2009, when he was killed in a crash in a different car.

The Rolls was then sold once again before the latest seven-hour auction, which saw more than 80 cars go under the hammer for a combined £22million.

Astonishingly, the Silver Ghost was not the most expensive lot. That honour went to a 1929 ‘Blower’ Bentley single-seater racing car, which sold for £5,042,000, the highest price ever for a British car at auction.

LOTS MORE TO SEE HERE. NICE.

Posted by peiper     on 07/05/2012 at 02:31 PM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
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