1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom

To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION WITHOUT RESERVE at RM Sothebys The Hershey Auction event, 7 - 8 October 2026.
Offered Without Reserve $150,000 - $200,000 USD

• Among the most elegant, sought-after formal bodies on the Springfield Phantom I
• One of 10 Marlborough Town Cars built and three known to survive
• The only known surviving example with a landaulet roof design
• Believed to have been delivered new with gold-plated hardware throughout
• Numbers-matching engine
• A CCCA Full Classic

The Marlborough Town Car was an unusually elegant example of Brewsters coachwork on the Springfield-built Rolls-Royce Phantom I chassis. Its crisp, dashing lines included front doors with shut lines angled towards the cowl, an early predecessor of what became known as the Croydon cowl on certain Phantom IIs, and a relatively low roofline with blind rear quarters.

Only 10 examples of the design were built, and only three survive, including one in the Nethercutt collection in Sylmar, California. The car offered here, chassis number S449MR, is believed to have been the only example delivered with a folding landaulet top over the rear compartment. Its build order specifies Black above the beltline, Carmine Lake below and red striping, along with the instruction, paint all lamps, radiator, windshield, mirrorscope, top irons, at my convenience. It is believed that these items were delivered, as finished today, in gold plate, creating a truly spectacular counterpoint to the sober hues of the Marlborough body. The final cost of $21,750 a sum greater than most Duesenbergs commanded likely made this one of Americas costliest automobiles in 1931. It was paid by John Barry Ryan, son of the great New York industrialist and art collector, Thomas Fortune Ryan, and himself a successful financier.

The Rolls-Royce Foundation records a continuous chain of subsequent owners from the 1950s until the mid-1970s. Flamboyant Kentucky coal, land, and cattle magnate Claude Canada he of the marble-floored cow barn reportedly purchased the car for his 20-odd collection of Rolls-Royces in 1975. It later passed to Robert Pond, in whose famed California stable it remained for many years. Along the way it made several memorable cameo appearances, including standing in for Norma Desmonds Isotta Fraschini to carry Gloria Swanson in the 1974 television special, Paramount Presents, and arriving center stage in a dance number to Puttin On The Ritz, during the 1984 Miss USA pageant. More recently, in 2021, it underwent extensive freshening to its older restoration by Nostalgic Motorcars of Farmington Hills, Michigan, prior to joining the present owners collection.

An exceptional piece of coachwork and engineering with well-known, fascinating history, both in the car collecting and society worlds, this very special, unique Rolls-Royce is still every bit the dramatic showstopper that it was back in 1931.
To view this car and others currently consigned to this auction, please visit the RM website at rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf26/.