H.J. Mulliner’s Drophead Coupé Adaptation first appeared late in the run of the Bentley S1 and Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I, as a catalogued offering based upon factory “Standard Steel Saloon” body shells—though these were so heavily reworked that the finished product was in every sense a fully coachbuilt automobile. The elegant, subtle design of these cars made the design extremely popular on the Silver Cloud II, but many fewer examples were produced on the contemporary Bentley S2, as the majority of coachbuilt Bentleys by this time had moved to the S2 Continental chassis, which had its own unique drophead coupé design. Indeed, only 18 S2s were outfitted as Drophead Coupé Adaptations, style number 7492, 11 of them were right-hand drive.

The motorcar offered here, chassis number B554CU, was ordered as stock by the London dealer Car Mart Ltd, to which it was delivered in February 1961, equipped with an automatic gearbox. Apparently either used by Car Mart for executive purposes or as a demonstrator, it was sold by them in 1963 to Sir William Steward, former Member of Parliament and longtime operator of the Veeraswamy restaurant in Regent Street. Under Sir William’s leadership, Veeraswamy expanded into prepared foods with the introduction of the first canned curry, which made the Stewards very wealthy; he was popularly known in the period press as “King Curry”.

King Curry’s Bentley appears, from copies of a UK “buff” logbook on file, to have remained in its home country into the early 1970s. In 1969, it was registered to Barry Gibb, one of the brothers who made up the Bee Gees, one of the most prominent and commercially successful groups in pop music from the 1960s well into the 1980s. He was, off-stage, a longtime Bentley enthusiast, amassing a small, select gathering of vintage and modern models. The S2 was later part of the prominent Blackhawk Collection in California, before becoming part of the present owner’s excellent collection in Belgium several years ago.

Restored in its handsome original livery of Shell Grey over Blue hides, as documented by copies of build sheets as well as copies of restoration photographs included in the file, the Bentley presents in lovely overall condition, clearly displaying the good care that it has received in present ownership. It is a most attractive example of its type, with rich and interesting history with fascinating personalities, as every good Bentley should have.