Summary

One of the most dashing Rolls-Royce town cars ever built. Unusual features include brushed copper engine-turned fenders and running boards, polished copper swage lines on the bonnet, polished copper exterior and interior hardware, and radiator louvers.

Details

This Rolls-Royce Phantom III was sold new to J.M. Nicholson with a limousine body built by a small English coachbuilding company called W.S. Atcherley; it was one of only 10 Rolls-Royce cars built by that company. In early 1946, having been bought by Rolls-Royce collector John Gaul, Gaul commissioned coachbuilders Freestone and Webb to create a new body for his Phantom III. The changed body to this extravagant design by Freestone & Webb, uses a double skin of copper over steel for the fenders and includes many luxury fittings. It was known to Gaul’s friends and family as Gaul’s “Copper Kettle.” This would be the last Phantom III Freestone and Webb would build. During the late '40s and early '50s the car was shown at many European concours, becoming famous throughout Rolls-Royce circles. This car is one of the most dashing Rolls-Royce town cars ever built. Some of its many unusual features include brushed copper engine-turned fenders and running boards, polished copper swage lines on the bonnet, polished copper exterior and interior hardware and radiator louvers. The body was painted burgundy, featuring a coachsill with cane work on the rear door and quarter section. Underneath the elegant coachwork is a massive 7.32-liter V12 engine, with power transferred to the rear end via a manual 4-speed transmission. An innovative new design feature for its time was two spark plugs per cylinder, two ignition coils, two distributors and one English Zenith 2-barrel carburetor. The interior features include veneers with an ivory and brass inlay, dark maroon leather upholstery in the front and dark maroon west-of-England cloth with ivory piping in the rear. This stunning example of the marque was most recently displayed on the lawn at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2017.