If you’ve seen what’s going on between William and Logan in Westworld, you know that workplace rivalries are typically bad for business.
But it’s not always the case. Sometimes, as was the case with this one, circa 90 years ago, they can result in something beautiful.
Commissioned in 1926 by Woolworths executive Clarence Gasque as a gift for his wife, the top stipulation placed on a Rolls-Royce Phantom I was it must be “grander and more lavish” than the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost that’d been built for his colleague Jon Snow (who knew nothing).
Since his wife, who was a Woolworth’s heiress, was passionate about 18th-century France, Gasque also asked that the one-off build feature a French theme in addition to besting Snow’s.
Given an unlimited budget and using those two requests as a guide, coachbuilder Charles Clark and Sons set about building a car that’s hitting Bonhams’ auction block this weekend under the name “The Phantom of Love.”
Equipped with an interior decorated with nude cherubs, a curved ceiling with concealed lighting, an antique drinks cabinet and a rear bench seat upholstered in tapestries that cost as much as a house, the majority (£4,500) of the Phantom’s £6,500 final cost went to outfitting the inside of the car.
Since all of that pricy custom work (about the equivalent of $677,500 today) is largely still intact, Bonhams expects the noteworthy Rolls-Royce to fetch up to $1 million at auction.
Guess you can put a price on love.
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