Copper-topped investment

Barrett-Jackson, Scottsdale, USA 13-21 January

THE STATEMENT MAKING Ferraris and Lamborghinis of today pale into insignificance beside this ostentatious RollsRoyce Phantom III, set to cross the block at Barrett-Jackson’s bonanza January auction.

Originally sold in 1937 as a rolling chassis costing £1533, the car was first bodied by Birmingham coachbuilder WC Atcherley as a limousine, then driven only briefly before entering wartime storage.

In 1946 it was bought by car dealerturned-property tycoon Alfred John Gaul who commissioned Freestone and Webb to convert it into a contender for the big postwar concours d’elegance staged in places such as Deauville, Monte Carlo and Cannes.

The result was the car as it appears today: a Sedanca de Ville dressed in rich ‘chianti’ paintwork set off by ‘basketweave’ rear doors and a generous application of brushed copper, which highlights everything from the radiator surround to the bumpers, wings, wheel centres – and even the Spirit of Ecstasy. There’s more copper inside, along with ivory and brass veneers and an electric division, blinds and passenger window.

Gaul wanted his Phantom III’s performance to match its looks – which is why it runs a 7.3-litre V12 engine and a fourspeed manual transmission.

Known in Rolls-Royce circles as ‘Gaul’s Copper Kettle’, it made regular appearances at the French shows until 1954, when it was sold to a UK owner, and then on to South Africa and the Netherlands before arriving in 1964 at the London showroom of Frank Dale & Stepsons, where it was offered at £3250.

The car later landed in the US, where it was once part of the Blackhawk Museum collection. It has also appeared regularly at Pebble Beach where, in 2008, it won the Lucius Beebe trophy for the Rolls-Royce that best represented Beebe – a former concours judge who was famed as a bon vivant. barrett-jackson.com