Rolls-Royce Spent 9 Months Making This Phantom’s Hummingbirds
by Adrian Padeanu · BMWBLOGArticle Summary
- The one-off Rolls-Royce Phantom Hummingbird is the first in company history to feature abalone shell marquetry.
- Each rear picnic table features a hummingbird made from 53 individual pieces of abalone shell and mother-of-pearl.
- 45 hours of hand-finishing were necessary for the three marquetry panels.
Rolls-Royce has a long history of turning its cars into rolling works of art, but the latest one-off Phantom might just take bespoke craftsmanship into uncharted territory. Meet the Phantom Hummingbird, a one-off ultra-luxe sedan featuring the first-ever use of abalone shell marquetry in a model from Goodwood. The company’s Private Office in Dubai commissioned it as a tribute to a client’s wife.
As the name suggests, the design takes inspiration from the tiny bird and its mesmerizing, naturally iridescent feathers. The centerpiece of this lavish Phantom is the intricate marquetry fitted to the rear picnic tables and the so-called waterfall panel between the rear seats. Each of the two tables features a hummingbird made from 53 individual pieces of abalone shell and mother-of-pearl, with 18 pieces used just for the wings. The center panel features a botanical motif consisting of another 84 pieces.
If that sounds like something you could knock out in an afternoon, think again. The BMW-owned brand spent nine months developing the technique needed to work with the exceptionally thin and brittle abalone shell. Six different iterations were required before the experts settled on a process that could deliver the desired result. The outcome had to meet the durability requirements expected of a car designed to survive for generations. After all, RRs are some of the longest-lasting cars ever made.
A Work Of Art Inside A Car
The shell is laser-cut 0.06 millimeters larger than its final dimensions to account for the laser’s burn margin. Each individual piece is then filed by hand until it fits perfectly against its neighbor, with no visible seams. That’s particularly important for the hummingbird’s wings, where the tolerances are so tight that Rolls-Royce says only human hands could achieve the required precision.
Once the team cut and fitted all the pieces, the three marquetry panels required another 45 hours of work. The finished pieces combine abalone shell and mother-of-pearl with Ash Burr veneer, while Silver Birch is used for parts of the picnic table motifs. Rolls-Royce even selected a single log of Silver Birch specifically for its grain pattern.
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Entirely Bespoke
The Creme Light leather interior with Moccasin and tan detailing has Seashell carpets, and the typical glitzy starlight headliner. On the outside, this Phantom isn’t exactly standard either. It wears a two-tone combination of Wildberry on the lower body and White Sands above it. A hand-applied coachline ties the two colors together, with a manually painted hummingbird seemingly flying along the car’s length.
As usual with these ultra-bespoke commissions, Rolls-Royce isn’t talking about how much the Hummingbird cost. That’s almost beside the point. This is a Phantom Extended built for one particular customer, and the fact that the car required many months of development just to figure out how to work with a new material tells you everything about the level of customization available to Rolls-Royce clients.
Let’s just say it wasn’t cheap.
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