Vehicle Description
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.
