By 1910, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars co-founder Henry Royce had become irritated with what he felt were tasteless mascots adorning radiator caps atop his company’s dignified automobiles. Managing director Claude Johnson suggested the company produce its own to supplant the demeaning devils, black cats, and other inanities of the day. Though he detested mascots of any kind, Royce eventually agreed and commissioned sculptor Charles Sykes to create a mascot befitting the brand.

For inspiration, Johnson pointed Sykes to the second-century BCE Grecian marble statue “Nike of Samothrace” on display at the Palais du Louvre in Paris, depicting the winged Goddess of Victory draped in a flowing tunic and mantle. Ultimately, Sykes developed something far more delicate and ethereal to express what was described in a letter from the company as “the spirit of the Rolls-Royce—namely, speed with silence, absence of vibration, the mysterious harnessing of great energy, a beautiful living organism of superb grace like a sailing yacht.”

Initially called “The Spirit of Speed,” correspondence indicates that Sykes had in mind the name “Spirit of Ecstasy, who has selected road travel as her supreme delight and alighted on the prow of a Rolls-Royce car to revel in the freshness of the air, and the musical sound of her fluttering draperies.”

Rolls-Royce registered the Spirit of Ecstasy as intellectual property in 1911. In 1920, it won a competition in Paris seeking the world’s best motor car mascot, with Sykes receiving a gold medal. An optional extra up until 1939, the Spirit of Ecstasy graced only about 40 percent of the 20,000 or so cars delivered during this period, though many were later retrofitted.

This bronze sculpture of the Spirit of Ecstasy stands two feet tall and is believed to have been displayed within a Rolls-Royce dealership in the 1920s. Mounted on an original marble base, it is signed “Charles Sykes” and numbered “35.”