1933 Rolls-Royce 20/25hp Sedanca Coupé
Coachwork by Gurney Nutting
Registration no. NFO 931
Chassis no. GEX65
Engine no. G3G

Introduced in 1929 as successor to the Twenty, the 20/25hp up-dated the concept with significant improvements, featuring an enlarged (from 3,127 to 3,669cc) and more powerful cross-flow version of its predecessor's six-cylinder, overhead-valve engine. The latter's increased power allowed the bespoke coachbuilders greater freedom in their efforts to satisfy a discerning clientele that demanded ever larger and more opulent designs. Produced concurrently with the Phantom II, the 20/25 benefited from many of the larger model's improvements, such as synchromesh gears and centralised chassis lubrication, becoming the best-selling Rolls-Royce of the inter-war period. Of the 2,824 made, it is estimated that some 2,600 survive. Even today the 20/25hp Rolls-Royce remains delightful to drive and is a favourite with collectors.

The Rolls-Royce 20/25hp was, of course, an exclusively coachbuilt automobile. Most of the great British coachbuilding firms offered designs, many of them unique, on the 20/25hp chassis. Some of the most widely admired were the work of J Gurney Nutting, as is the case here. A company associated with quality marques - Bentley in particular - from its earliest days and a supreme practitioner of the coachbuilding craft in the late 1930s, Gurney Nutting had been founded in Croydon, Surrey in 1919. The company had bodied its first Bentley before moving to London's fashionable Chelsea district in 1924, and within a few years was established as the Cricklewood firm's foremost supplier of bodies after Vanden Plas.

Gurney Nutting's work had a sporting flavour from the outset and succeeded in attracting the attention of society's upper echelons; the Prince of Wales and Duke of York were clients, and the firm gained its Royal Warrant in the early 1930s. Daimler and Rolls-Royce had been added to the Gurney Nutting portfolio in the mid-1920s, and the fruitful association with the latter continued into the succeeding decade.

Off test on 6th March 1933, chassis number 'GEX65' was first owned by His Highness Prince Ali Salman Aga Khan - known as Aly Khan - the famous playboy and son of the Aga Khan. He ordered what is considered among the most attractive coachwork to adorn this model: the perfectly proportioned 'Owen' three-position Sedanca Drophead Coupé by Gurney Nutting, Britain's most accomplished and expensive coachbuilder of this period. The car's original registration was 'AGK 665'.

Through H R Owen's Berkeley Square showroom, the Prince ordered several unique features for this car, the most obvious of which is a specially extended bonnet, some 6" longer than standard to give the appearance of the larger Phantom model (build sheets on file). The delivery address was 'Prince Ali Khan, Ritz Hotel, London' and the Prince then took the Rolls-Royce on a tour of the French Riviera. It is reputed that it was in this car that he proposed to the famous film star Rita Hayworth, whom he later married.

The accompanying copy chassis card lists the next owner (from December 1934) as Malcolm Vaughan, Esq of London SW3 followed by Mrs E R T Holmes of Brampton near Huntingdon (from 1945) and P J Spink, Esq of Limpsfield, Surrey (from March 1946). Other records on file list four owners in the USA between 1959 and 1995 when the car returned to the UK. Since then it has had only two owners: Fred Holgate and the current vendor, who acquired the car in 2004.

Extensively restored in 1988, this most elegant Rolls-Royce is finished in black with tan leather upholstery and beige carpets. There are bills in the history file from P & A Wood for £6,450 and Fiennes Restoration Ltd for £9,958 together with others for basic maintenance carried out by Fullbridge Restoration Company and Silver Lady Services totalling £3,351. In addition to the aforementioned paperwork, the car also comes with some expired MoT certificates and a V5C registration document. An owner's handbook, 'town' radiator cap, ignition/door/tool tray keys and an alternative driver's seat (for a shorter individual) are included in the sale.

Described as in generally good-to-very good condition, 'GEX65' represents the very best of 1930s motoring style and is an absolute 'must have' for the Rolls-Royce connoisseur. The sensible provision of a modern full-flow oil filter is the only notified deviation from factory specification.