Versailles on wheels
Up for sale at £700k, palatial 1926 Rolls that tycoon bought for his wife
WHEN Clarence Gasque bought his wife Maude a car 90 years ago, there were certainly no brakes on his spending.
The wealthy businessman ordered the latest top-of-the-range RollsRoyce Phantom 1 and commissioned a custom-built interior so opulent and crammed with artwork that the result was a palace on wheels.
It was inspired by a sedan chair in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum that had belonged to Marie Antoinette.
Unsurprisingly, the car, nicknamed the Phantom of Love, is described by auctioneers Bonhams as ‘looking more like the throne room at Versailles’ than the inside of a car and ‘a work of art, a piece of history’. They expect it to fetch up to £700,000 when it is sold in December.
Mr Gasque, a London-based American who was financial director of the UK division of FW Woolworth, spent £6,500 having it made to order in 1926. Some £4,500 of the price went on the rococo interior, which includes a tapestry covering the rear seat and a painting of naked cherubs on the roof interior.
It also has a French ormolu clock, two French porcelain vases, gilded fittings, a drinks cabinet and even a make-up cabinet.
Charles Clark & Son of Wolverhampton took ten months to fit out the Phantom to the requirements of Mr Gasque, whose family had French origins. He and his wife finally took delivery in April 1927.
But the couple’s enjoyment of the car, which had a top speed of 90mph, was shortlived as Mr Gasque died 18 months later aged 54.
Mrs Gasque, a Woolworth heiress, dedicated her life to animal welfare and vegetarianism. She used the car until 1937, when it was put in storage until Rolls-Royce collector Stanley Sears bought it in 1952.
It passed through the hands of various Japanese collectors and was sold for about £1million in 1986. It resurfaced in America in 2001 before eventually returning to England.
The identity of the owner who is selling it is unknown.