Prince’s Lagonda DHC for sale
A 1954 Aston Martin Lagonda 3-Litre Drophead Coupé built to the special order of the Duke of Edinburgh is to be offered for sale on 20 April.
H&H is offering the car that won Aston Martin Lagonda its first Royal Warrant at its sale at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridgeshire.
It carries an estimate of £350,000450,000, three to four times that usually expected for a Lagonda 3-Litre DHC without the Royal connection. As a further plus, it has only covered 50,000 miles from new and includes several special features among them a vanity mirror for use by HM The Queen.
Prince Philip specified Edinburgh Green paintwork matched to grey leather upholstery for the MkI four-seater convertible, which he used until 1961.
It went on a Commonwealth tour in 1956-1957 and appeared in newsreel films and publications of the period. Closer to home, it is also the car from which he and The Queen opened the M1 motorway in 1959.
Aston Martin Lagonda sent staff to work on the car on a sometimes weekly basis during The Duke’s seven-year ownership and arranged for it to be equally well looked after when abroad.
‘This car is part of our history. The accompanying paperwork beggars belief,’ says Damian Jones, H&H sales manager. ‘There is an amusing story about Prince Phillip driving Her Majesty through London in this car and being held up by a policeman on point duty directing traffic. When the policeman saw who was in the Lagonda he did a double take and swiftly waved them on.’
Part of a private collection for 40 years, it was reunited with Prince Philip at a Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) event in 1999.
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