This 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I left the company’s Springfield, Massachusetts factory and was delivered on 12 March 1928 to Charles R. Blyth of New York City. Blyth, originally from Ohio, graduated in 1905 from Amherst College in Massachusetts. An investment banker, in 1914 he co-founded Blyth, Witter & Co. in San Francisco, which lays claim to being the first investment bank in the Western United States. Witter would later leave and form his own brokerage business, Dean Witter Reynolds. In 1924, with Witter dropped from the company’s name, Blyth & Co. would continue its expansion, eventually moving its offices in 1927 to the newly built, Neo-Gothic designed Russ Building in San Francisco’s financial district—a building which Blyth himself paid for. In the 1929 Wall Street crash, Blyth would suffer losses like many others; despite that, during The Great Depression, he was one of the major sources of funding for the Golden Gate Bridge project.

Following other successive California owners, noted Rolls-Royce restorer Fred Buess offered the Blyth Phantom I for sale. Enthusiast Norman Fahmie purchased it and commissioned Buess to restore it. As part of this work, the original Kenilworth sedan body was replaced with the current Piccadilly Roadster coachwork, one of the most sought-after designs in period for the American Phantom I. Notably, well-known Rolls-Royce coachbuilder Doug Chalmers built the new body using patterns taken from an original Piccadilly Roadster.

Around the early 2000s, Glyn Morris purchased the car from Mr. Fahmie and sold it to Rolls-Royce collector Dr. David Morrison. In 2023 Dr. Morrison sold the car to well-known collector Gary Cerveny, who had the cosmetics of the restoration completed by John Bothwell of Costa Mesa, California. The current owners bought it from Mr. Cerveny in January 2025.

Today the Rolls-Royce presents in a charming shade of light yellow with brown fenders, top, and interior. The Spirit of Ecstasy is prominently displayed atop the radiator cap. The exterior is equipped with cowl lights, dual side-mounted spares, and a golf-club door. The interior is trimmed in brown leather and is equipped with the full suite of period instrumentation, a Chelsea eight-day dash clock, and a rear rumble seat for additional occupants.

This beautiful Springfield-built Phantom I with its interesting ownership history and attractive restoration featuring sporting Piccadilly coachwork by Doug Chalmers is sure to draw attention on the show field and on tour.