Mayfair, London dealers Gordon Watney and Co. Ltd. ordered Phantom II Continental number 56GX on behalf of their client, Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Duveen. Knighted in 1948, Lt. Cmdr. Duveen was the son of renowned art dealer Henry J. Duveen and himself a barrister and businessman. His interests included serving as a director of coachbuilders at Freestone & Webb, which must have proved rather awkward, given the body on his own Continental was by their competitor H.J. Mulliner. Its one-off body, the only fixed-head coupe by Mulliner on a Continental chassis, was built to the Weymann method—lightweight metal-paneled construction with inner framework insulated against squeaks and rattles—and featured a large “sunshine roof,” a rear-mounted spare, and the rakish, flared, open fenders that are so instantly indicative of the early Continentals.

Lt. Cmdr. Duveen enjoyed the car for four years before its resale to Captain Raymond Farrington, who after three months sold it to Beatrice Forbes, 8th Countess of Granard. It later passed in 1936 to George S. Brodrick, then to one R. Brooks, following the war. American enthusiast Dr. Walter Nickerson of Princeton, New Jersey apparently became its first Stateside owner in 1959, and the car remained with his family until 1976, when it was purchased by the current caretaker.

The car has now remained with its owner, a longstanding Rolls-Royce Owners Club member and passionate enthusiast of the marque, for a remarkable 48 years. Restored in 1985 and a class award-winner at the RROC Annual Meet that year, it has remained a well-loved possession, occasionally shown and driven over nearly half a century. It is pictured as-new in both Andre Blaizé’s Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental and Raymond Gentile’s The Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental, both of the standard reference texts on this model, and also in Lawrence Dalton’s,Those Elegant Rolls-Royce.

A wonderful example of Rolls-Royce’s vision for the Continental as a high-speed, owner-driver car, 56GX would be an ideal candidate either for a fresh concours restoration or, perhaps more aptly, to sort out and enjoy driving.