To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION at RM Sothebys' Arizona event, 17 - 18
January 2019.
Estimate:
$1,100,000 - $1,400,000
- Offered from a prominent private collection
- The most desirable coachwork on this chassis; one of 31
left-hand-drive examples
- Well-known, fascinating ownership history; single ownership for
nearly 30 years
- Documented with Rolls-Royce Foundation and Hunt House build
information
- Offered with complete sets of road and hand tools
- An exceptional S1 Continental
The most desirable catalogued body style on the S1 Continental
chassis was the drophead coupe by Park Ward, style no. 700. Unlike
the majority of Bentley convertibles produced in this era, this
style was not an "adaptation" from factory design stampings, but
rather a fully custom body, built from the ground up by Park Ward's
craftsmen, hand-crafted in aluminum. It is distinguished by smooth,
subtle body lines, with the long, fully "flow through" fenders that
flow from the front to the rear "hips," and rear fenders that kick
up slightly to form tiny tailfins.
Park Ward built this design on only 31 left-hand-drive S1
Continental chassis, and the survivors are among the most fiercely
prized of all post-war Bentleys, featured in some of the world's
finest collections of grand touring automobiles.
The example offered was delivered on 3 June 1956, to Annandale, the
palatial estate of Mary Stevens Baird of Bernardsville, New Jersey.
Mrs. Baird was an heiress to the prominent Stevens family of
inventors and entrepreneurs, responsible for early innovations in
steam locomotives and for establishing the U.S.'s first patent
office, and was a philanthropist deeply involved in correctional
reform, a longtime family cause. Her niece, the iconoclastic future
U.S. Representative Millicent Fenwick, was raised at Annandale by
Mrs. Baird.
As originally supplied, the car was finished in Tudor Grey over
Green, with sealed-beam headlamps, a radio, Windtone horns,
U.S.-specification instrumentation, and other typical North
American features, such as deletion of the reverse button on the
gear lever and a "Made in England" plate. Interestingly, a note was
made for "owner's mascot," a silver fox, though it has since been
supplanted by the classic �Flying B.'
In June 1964 the car passed to its second owner, Dr. Theodore
Griggs III of Summit, New Jersey. It enjoyed several other East
Coast enthusiast ownerships during the 1970s and 1980s, including
being shown in Rolls-Royce Owners Club events by Dr. Halsey G.
Bullen and Harold Porter. In 1990 it was acquired through Richard
Gorman's Vantage Motorworks for a prominent private collection, one
of the world's finest assemblages of coachbuilt Rolls-Royce and
Bentley automobiles, and has remained in the collection for nearly
30 years.
Today the car is a well-preserved restoration in Masons Black with
a Dove Gray leather interior piped in black and a properly fitted
black top. The interior's burled walnut trim is rich and
harmonious, with the dashboard carrying original gauges and an
updated modern stereo system, which fits nicely into place; all is
overseen by correct "purdah" smoked glass sun visors. Finishes
under the hood show some driving and use over the years, with minor
patination visible throughout, but are in general correct and
attractive. The original sets of proper road and hand tools are
still stashed under the floor of the boot.
Examples of the Park Ward drophead coupe seldom become available
for sale, and fewer still are those with this car's distinguished
specification and provenance. It is a lovely machine, offered from
one exceptional home to another.To view this car and others
currently consigned to this auction, please visit the RM website at
rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/az19.
