1904
1904 The Antique Nile of Alma-Tadema
2010 SOLD 35.9 M$ including premium
No painter is more typical of Victorian and Edwardian art than Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. We are therefore surprised to know that this artist, in fact, was of Dutch origin.
He followed a theme that appealed to the public of his time: the exotic antiques. He was amazed by the collections of the British Museum, and featured his characters amidst monuments for which he relied on photographs. He particularly liked the marble seats in which he showed languid ladies.
Strong personality, he had managed his career and became wealthy and famous. His name was Laurens Alma Tadema, which he adapted to be better positioned in alphabetical lists. He gave an opus number to each of his paintings, creating himself a record that protected his work against counterfeits.
He would not adapt to the trends of modern art, and was forgotten for more than half a century after his death.
Opus CCCLXXVII is best known in the art market, having been sold $ 2.7 million including premium at Christie's on May 25, 1995. This is a commissioned work for the benefit of the engineer who had invited him in 1902 at the opening of the Aswan Dam.
Completed in 1904, this large oil on canvas, 137 x 213 cm, shows a scene from the finding of Moses on the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter is surrounded by an opulent procession of servants and slaves. From the top of her carriage, she fondly looks at the baby in his basket, carried by two women.
This lot is again for sale, estimated $ 3M, by Sotheby's in New York on November 4.
POST SALE COMMENT
Two very high results were recorded in this sale of Belle Epoque art. The painting of Alma-Tadema, subject of this article, was sold for $ 35.9 million including premium. A woman's portrait painted in 1892 by Boldini, 201 x 101 cm, was sold for $ 6.5 million including premium on an estimate of $ 1M.
Analyses will certainly be made to understand this shift in the market for a period that seemed difficult to sell. We can already say with certainty that some artworks will reappear on the market. Expect Gérôme, Béraud, Bouguereau, ...
The image is shared post sale by Artdaily.
Shared on Wikimedia :
He followed a theme that appealed to the public of his time: the exotic antiques. He was amazed by the collections of the British Museum, and featured his characters amidst monuments for which he relied on photographs. He particularly liked the marble seats in which he showed languid ladies.
Strong personality, he had managed his career and became wealthy and famous. His name was Laurens Alma Tadema, which he adapted to be better positioned in alphabetical lists. He gave an opus number to each of his paintings, creating himself a record that protected his work against counterfeits.
He would not adapt to the trends of modern art, and was forgotten for more than half a century after his death.
Opus CCCLXXVII is best known in the art market, having been sold $ 2.7 million including premium at Christie's on May 25, 1995. This is a commissioned work for the benefit of the engineer who had invited him in 1902 at the opening of the Aswan Dam.
Completed in 1904, this large oil on canvas, 137 x 213 cm, shows a scene from the finding of Moses on the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter is surrounded by an opulent procession of servants and slaves. From the top of her carriage, she fondly looks at the baby in his basket, carried by two women.
This lot is again for sale, estimated $ 3M, by Sotheby's in New York on November 4.
POST SALE COMMENT
Two very high results were recorded in this sale of Belle Epoque art. The painting of Alma-Tadema, subject of this article, was sold for $ 35.9 million including premium. A woman's portrait painted in 1892 by Boldini, 201 x 101 cm, was sold for $ 6.5 million including premium on an estimate of $ 1M.
Analyses will certainly be made to understand this shift in the market for a period that seemed difficult to sell. We can already say with certainty that some artworks will reappear on the market. Expect Gérôme, Béraud, Bouguereau, ...
The image is shared post sale by Artdaily.
Shared on Wikimedia :
1904 Nymphéas by Monet
2007 SOLD for £ 18.5M by Sotheby's
In 1893, when Claude Monet obtains the administrative authorization to create a pond in his garden at Giverny, he already knows that it will be a laboratory for his artistic creation. He was then interested in the reflections in the water of the tall trees and of the Japanese bridge.
Monet is an amateur but careful and skilled horticulturist. Without having his original preference, the water lilies impose themselves as his most prolific theme, up to obsession. Unlike the ivy on the wall, they will not cover the entire available surface. Spreading their leaves flush with water, they materialize in perspective the real surface of the pond.
From 1904 to 1908, Monet produced his first series of Nymphéas. With more than 60 paintings which he wants all different from one another, the artist expresses the most subtle variations of color and light, changing the distance and population of the flowers, the importance of the reflections from the trees and the expressive power of color.
The horizon disappears, the details become abstract but the botanical accuracy remains. An early example in this new figurative style, dated 1904, 81 x 100 cm, was sold for £ 18.5M by Sotheby's on 19 June 2007, lot 7. In this close-up view, the edge of the pond is already off the field, also providing an impression of infinity that anticipates Mondrian.
Monet is an amateur but careful and skilled horticulturist. Without having his original preference, the water lilies impose themselves as his most prolific theme, up to obsession. Unlike the ivy on the wall, they will not cover the entire available surface. Spreading their leaves flush with water, they materialize in perspective the real surface of the pond.
From 1904 to 1908, Monet produced his first series of Nymphéas. With more than 60 paintings which he wants all different from one another, the artist expresses the most subtle variations of color and light, changing the distance and population of the flowers, the importance of the reflections from the trees and the expressive power of color.
The horizon disappears, the details become abstract but the botanical accuracy remains. An early example in this new figurative style, dated 1904, 81 x 100 cm, was sold for £ 18.5M by Sotheby's on 19 June 2007, lot 7. In this close-up view, the edge of the pond is already off the field, also providing an impression of infinity that anticipates Mondrian.
1904 Waterloo Bridge Temps Couvert by Monet
2007 SOLD for £ 18M by Christie's
Monet used to observe the Waterloo bridge in the morning when the sun was rising behind it. He considered Charing Cross bridge when the sun light had turned and Westminster from Saint Thomas's later in the afternoon.
Waterloo Bridge temps couvert, oil of canvas 65 x 100 cm dated 1904, was sold for £ 18M by Christie's on June 18, 2007, lot 14, from a lower estimate of £ 6M.
This view displays three areas of bright yellow sun light, in the sky revealing the shore, under the arches of the bridge, and on the rippling surface of the river in front of the shadow of the bridge.
Waterloo Bridge temps couvert, oil of canvas 65 x 100 cm dated 1904, was sold for £ 18M by Christie's on June 18, 2007, lot 14, from a lower estimate of £ 6M.
This view displays three areas of bright yellow sun light, in the sky revealing the shore, under the arches of the bridge, and on the rippling surface of the river in front of the shadow of the bridge.
1904-1908 Lost Innocence
2021 SOLD for £ 16.3M including premium
The cycle of life is the great obsession of Edvard Munch. The stages from love to death are an inexorable tragedy generating a growing anguish : illusion, despair, infidelity, jealousy, humiliation, separation. The artist himself fails to peacefully satiate his sex life.
His meeting in 1902 with Dr. Linde is a relief. Linde, a great fan of Rodin, immediately writes a monograph on Munch's art. In 1904 he commissions a series of paintings from the artist to decorate the children's room in his villa in Lübeck.
Munch achieves this project with about eleven pieces, mostly beach scenes. The artist's old demons have not been annihilated : Linde rejects the set because a few couples are too risque to be seen by his young sons. The paintings, which will be identified as the Linde frieze, are returned to Munch.
Sommertag, summer day, oil on canvas 90 x 195 cm, is an opus from the Linde cycle. Groups of girls symbolize innocence. Unlike Girls on the Bridge, the characters lose their individuality : white dresses and long blond hair are intertwined in blocks.
Munch reworks this painting at an undetermined date. The image becomes Omfavnelse, the embrace. A dark couple has been added to the foreground. The blurry man lowers his head to kiss the woman whose oversized black-rimmed eyes express partner rejection and fear. They are transparent ghosts through which we can see the sea and the shore. The Scream, in 1893, left the possibility of some rescue. Omfavnelse is the post mortem phase. Its terminus ante quem is the great breakdown of the artist in 1908.
Summer day - the Embrace was sold for £ 6.2M including premium by Sotheby's on February 7, 2006, lot 34, and is estimated £ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in London on March 25, lot 115. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
His meeting in 1902 with Dr. Linde is a relief. Linde, a great fan of Rodin, immediately writes a monograph on Munch's art. In 1904 he commissions a series of paintings from the artist to decorate the children's room in his villa in Lübeck.
Munch achieves this project with about eleven pieces, mostly beach scenes. The artist's old demons have not been annihilated : Linde rejects the set because a few couples are too risque to be seen by his young sons. The paintings, which will be identified as the Linde frieze, are returned to Munch.
Sommertag, summer day, oil on canvas 90 x 195 cm, is an opus from the Linde cycle. Groups of girls symbolize innocence. Unlike Girls on the Bridge, the characters lose their individuality : white dresses and long blond hair are intertwined in blocks.
Munch reworks this painting at an undetermined date. The image becomes Omfavnelse, the embrace. A dark couple has been added to the foreground. The blurry man lowers his head to kiss the woman whose oversized black-rimmed eyes express partner rejection and fear. They are transparent ghosts through which we can see the sea and the shore. The Scream, in 1893, left the possibility of some rescue. Omfavnelse is the post mortem phase. Its terminus ante quem is the great breakdown of the artist in 1908.
Summer day - the Embrace was sold for £ 6.2M including premium by Sotheby's on February 7, 2006, lot 34, and is estimated £ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in London on March 25, lot 115. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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1904-1906 Vallier by Cézanne
2007 SOLD for $ 17.4M by Christie's
From Les Joueurs de Cartes, peasants and country laborers represent the authentic figures of mankind for Cézanne. In 1902, when he opens his studio at Chemin des Lauves for facing the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, he is an ailing man of 63.
The property around the new studio is tended by a gardener named Vallier. The artist has a friendship for this elderly man who represents the last age of life. Cézanne now works very slowly, ever in quest of the suitable color and luminosity for every stroke. Although the portraits of Vallier are a major theme of this phase, he realizes only six watercolors and three oils, still working on one of them when he dies in 1906.
Portrait de Vallier, watercolor over pencil on paper 48 x 31 cm, was sold for $ 17.4M by Christie's on November 6, 2007, lot 31. Interestingly, in this ultimate phase of Cézanne's ever innovating process, the forms are created by the colors, the underlying pencil lines being used as a mere sketching.
Vallier is seated on a chair. His white shirt attests of summer's warm weather. He is stooped and his eyes behind the straw hat's rim and his mouth behind the long white beard do not bring an expression to this allegorical figure. The foliage envelops him with no details, like a halo. Interestingly, another theme of the same period is the still life of skulls.
This watercolor is a preparation to an oil painting made in 1906 with the same cross hands and cross legs attitude of the sitter, kept at the Tate Gallery. Christie's proposes convincingly 1904-1906 for the date range of the watercolor.
The property around the new studio is tended by a gardener named Vallier. The artist has a friendship for this elderly man who represents the last age of life. Cézanne now works very slowly, ever in quest of the suitable color and luminosity for every stroke. Although the portraits of Vallier are a major theme of this phase, he realizes only six watercolors and three oils, still working on one of them when he dies in 1906.
Portrait de Vallier, watercolor over pencil on paper 48 x 31 cm, was sold for $ 17.4M by Christie's on November 6, 2007, lot 31. Interestingly, in this ultimate phase of Cézanne's ever innovating process, the forms are created by the colors, the underlying pencil lines being used as a mere sketching.
Vallier is seated on a chair. His white shirt attests of summer's warm weather. He is stooped and his eyes behind the straw hat's rim and his mouth behind the long white beard do not bring an expression to this allegorical figure. The foliage envelops him with no details, like a halo. Interestingly, another theme of the same period is the still life of skulls.
This watercolor is a preparation to an oil painting made in 1906 with the same cross hands and cross legs attitude of the sitter, kept at the Tate Gallery. Christie's proposes convincingly 1904-1906 for the date range of the watercolor.
(previous purchase 1904) Improvement of an Old Pink Diamond
2015 SOLD for CHF 14.8M including premium
The famous reclusive heiress Huguette Clark owned a big cushion brilliant-cut fancy vivid pink diamond. Introduced as the highlight of her jewels, it remained unsold at auction in 2012 on a lower estimate of $ 6M.
Ancient diamonds have a potential for improvement. For example, Graff removed 4 carats from his Blaue Wittelsbacher to improve its clarity.
In her estate, the Clark diamond weighed 9.00 carats with a SI1 clarity that was indeed not exciting.
It is now offered by Sotheby's on May 12 in Geneva. It has been reduced to 8.72 carats to improve its clarity to VS2, guaranteed by GIA. Mounted on a ring between two small D color diamonds, this gem is estimated 13,65M CHF corresponding to US $ 14M, lot 460.
Its provenance was also researched and it received the name of Historic pink. This diamond had been bought by Dreicer at the auction of the estate of Mathilde Bonaparte in Paris in June 1904.
Ancient diamonds have a potential for improvement. For example, Graff removed 4 carats from his Blaue Wittelsbacher to improve its clarity.
In her estate, the Clark diamond weighed 9.00 carats with a SI1 clarity that was indeed not exciting.
It is now offered by Sotheby's on May 12 in Geneva. It has been reduced to 8.72 carats to improve its clarity to VS2, guaranteed by GIA. Mounted on a ring between two small D color diamonds, this gem is estimated 13,65M CHF corresponding to US $ 14M, lot 460.
Its provenance was also researched and it received the name of Historic pink. This diamond had been bought by Dreicer at the auction of the estate of Mathilde Bonaparte in Paris in June 1904.
The Historic Pink Diamond, believed to have belonged to Princess Mathilde, Napoleon I's niece, sells for US$ 15.9m pic.twitter.com/sKfQPt92MY
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 12, 2015
1902-1905 The Goddess of Chahut
2016 SOLD for £ 11.6M including premium
In Greek mythology, Iris is the messenger of the gods. Her mission is to only forward good news. She is also the sister of the Harpies and logically gets a place in the proposed Porte de l'Enfer (Gate of Hell) by Rodin.
In an early version, she is lying on her back. She is a robust acrobat, a hand holding a foot and another ensuring the balance of her splits. Totally and explicitly nude, this woman is often compared with The Origin of the World of Courbet with whom Rodin shares an irrepressible desire to shock the bourgeois.
In 1891, Rodin works on commission on his monument to Victor Hugo. He designs a group of nudes in which the poet is originally surrounded by the three ages of life. It is a bit boring. The sculptor retrieves his Iris for bringing glory to Hugo by hovering over his head.
Iris becomes independent in 1896 with a larger version. Inspired by the dancers of can can and chahut, Rodin puts the statue upright. The erotic power is increased, but still not enough to the taste of the artist. In order to concentrate the viewer's attention to the open sex, he takes off the head and also the arm that ensured the balance.
Iris bronzes made during the lifetime of Rodin are very rare. One of them cast by Rudier between 1902 and 1905 in the large size model, 83 cm high, was sold for £ 4.6 million including premium by Sotheby's in London on June 19, 2007. This example comes back in the same auction room on February 3, lot 22 estimated £ 6M.
Posthumous casts were also executed. A bronze edited in 1966 in the same size by the Musée Rodin was sold for $ 2.9 million including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2015.
In an early version, she is lying on her back. She is a robust acrobat, a hand holding a foot and another ensuring the balance of her splits. Totally and explicitly nude, this woman is often compared with The Origin of the World of Courbet with whom Rodin shares an irrepressible desire to shock the bourgeois.
In 1891, Rodin works on commission on his monument to Victor Hugo. He designs a group of nudes in which the poet is originally surrounded by the three ages of life. It is a bit boring. The sculptor retrieves his Iris for bringing glory to Hugo by hovering over his head.
Iris becomes independent in 1896 with a larger version. Inspired by the dancers of can can and chahut, Rodin puts the statue upright. The erotic power is increased, but still not enough to the taste of the artist. In order to concentrate the viewer's attention to the open sex, he takes off the head and also the arm that ensured the balance.
Iris bronzes made during the lifetime of Rodin are very rare. One of them cast by Rudier between 1902 and 1905 in the large size model, 83 cm high, was sold for £ 4.6 million including premium by Sotheby's in London on June 19, 2007. This example comes back in the same auction room on February 3, lot 22 estimated £ 6M.
Posthumous casts were also executed. A bronze edited in 1966 in the same size by the Musée Rodin was sold for $ 2.9 million including premium by Sotheby's on May 5, 2015.
#AuctionUpdate #Rodin's daringly erotic #sculpture Iris once again sets a record for the artist at £11.6 million pic.twitter.com/KE1uHsl1kv
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) February 3, 2016
1904 The Mountains of a New Land
2014 SOLD 12.5 M$ including premium
In 1871, the Hayden survey explores and describes Yellowstone. Nature had created without human help some fabulous romantic landscapes. The scientists are accompanied by two young artists, the photographer WH Jackson and the painter Thomas Moran.
Photos are black and white at that time, so it was left to the paintings of Moran to display to the Americans the extraordinary colors of the Rocky Mountains. Even the Congress is charmed by these images. In 1872 the first national park is established in Yellowstone.
Moran was seduced by this theme that occupied him for his entire career. Inspired by Turner's art, he expressed the deep sensitivity of the landscape in a sharp line that respected the geological realism.
Painted in 1878, the Wyoming mountain reflected in the Green River is one of his masterpieces. This oil on canvas 64 x 122 cm was sold for $ 17.7 million including premium by Christie's on May 21, 2008.
On May 22 in New York, Christie's sells a panoramic view in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, expressive and contrasted. Painted in 1904, this oil on canvas 75 x 152 cm is estimated $ 8M.
POST SALE COMMENT
Great price for this late panoramic view by Moran: $ 12.5 million including premium.
Photos are black and white at that time, so it was left to the paintings of Moran to display to the Americans the extraordinary colors of the Rocky Mountains. Even the Congress is charmed by these images. In 1872 the first national park is established in Yellowstone.
Moran was seduced by this theme that occupied him for his entire career. Inspired by Turner's art, he expressed the deep sensitivity of the landscape in a sharp line that respected the geological realism.
Painted in 1878, the Wyoming mountain reflected in the Green River is one of his masterpieces. This oil on canvas 64 x 122 cm was sold for $ 17.7 million including premium by Christie's on May 21, 2008.
On May 22 in New York, Christie's sells a panoramic view in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, expressive and contrasted. Painted in 1904, this oil on canvas 75 x 152 cm is estimated $ 8M.
POST SALE COMMENT
Great price for this late panoramic view by Moran: $ 12.5 million including premium.
1904 Grande Baigneuse aux jambes croisées by Renoir
2007 SOLD for $ 8.9M including premium by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
1904-1906 Serene Woods of Paul Cézanne
2017 SOLD for € 6.9M including premium
From 1902 Paul Cézanne works alone facing the immensity of nature in his little cabin at Les Lauves. Sick and tired, he is anxious that he will not have time to reach his targeted ideal of perfection.
He observes the juxtapositions of colors on the Montagne Sainte-Victoire without abandoning other themes. The Baigneuses will remain until the end his demonstrator for still unexplored possibilities in figurative art. A quiet undergrowth is conducive to the sharing of meditation.
He has always enjoyed watercolor for its transparency and for the purity of its colors. His pathetic approach is no longer commercial. In this final period he often works on the reverse of previously painted papers. The lightness of the watercolor allows such a practice without damage to the other side.
Cézanne is diabetic and his vision weakens. More than ever he manages to recreate an atmosphere. In the forest the depth is only brought by the curve of the path or by the diagonal of the wood edge.
The preliminary sketch in lead pencil is barely figurative. It is instead a configuration of geometric elements prepared for coloring. According to his traditional practice he painstakingly and gradually fills these surfaces while ensuring that the colors shall not mix. This method is a pointillism of Seurat or Signac in which the dots have been replaced by intersections of lines prepared in advance.
On December 20 in Paris (Hôtel Drouot) Touati-Duffaud in cooperation with Beaussant Lefèvre sells as lot 43 an Intérieur de forêt. This watercolor 45 x 60 cm rich in warm colors of great brightness is one of the last realized by Cézanne on this theme, dated 1904-1906 by Rewald. It is glued on a cardboard but its inaccessible back side is probably blank.
The overall effect is figurative and this work demonstrates Cézanne's progress towards synthetic cubism. Is it Fontainebleau? Is it Le Tholonet? It does not matter. This corner of a forest does not imitate nature, it is built by the imagination of an artist for sharing his emotion.
Please watch the video shared by Drouot.
He observes the juxtapositions of colors on the Montagne Sainte-Victoire without abandoning other themes. The Baigneuses will remain until the end his demonstrator for still unexplored possibilities in figurative art. A quiet undergrowth is conducive to the sharing of meditation.
He has always enjoyed watercolor for its transparency and for the purity of its colors. His pathetic approach is no longer commercial. In this final period he often works on the reverse of previously painted papers. The lightness of the watercolor allows such a practice without damage to the other side.
Cézanne is diabetic and his vision weakens. More than ever he manages to recreate an atmosphere. In the forest the depth is only brought by the curve of the path or by the diagonal of the wood edge.
The preliminary sketch in lead pencil is barely figurative. It is instead a configuration of geometric elements prepared for coloring. According to his traditional practice he painstakingly and gradually fills these surfaces while ensuring that the colors shall not mix. This method is a pointillism of Seurat or Signac in which the dots have been replaced by intersections of lines prepared in advance.
On December 20 in Paris (Hôtel Drouot) Touati-Duffaud in cooperation with Beaussant Lefèvre sells as lot 43 an Intérieur de forêt. This watercolor 45 x 60 cm rich in warm colors of great brightness is one of the last realized by Cézanne on this theme, dated 1904-1906 by Rewald. It is glued on a cardboard but its inaccessible back side is probably blank.
The overall effect is figurative and this work demonstrates Cézanne's progress towards synthetic cubism. Is it Fontainebleau? Is it Le Tholonet? It does not matter. This corner of a forest does not imitate nature, it is built by the imagination of an artist for sharing his emotion.
Please watch the video shared by Drouot.
“Intérieur de forêt”, une rare aquarelle de Paul #Cézanne trouvera un nouvel acquéreur mercredi. Pour l’une des dernières ventes de la saison, gageons un très beau résultat !
— Drouot (@Drouot) December 18, 2017
Rendez-vous à 14h30 chez Touati-Duffaud => https://t.co/cdawsCKLjk pic.twitter.com/XKxQ5qTnuf
1904 Rolls-Royce 10 hp
2007 SOLD for £ 3.5M including premium by Bonhams
narrated in 2020
Charles Stewart Rolls, son of a Lord and lover of sports performances, and Henry Royce, inventor and mechanic engineer in Manchester, had built the same vision, independently of each other : the delay in development of British cars compared to French cars is not irremediable.
To design his first model, the Royce 10, Henry Royce disassembles and analyzes a two cylinder 1901 Decauville and makes three prototypes. With an intuition which can be described as brilliant, he takes a particular care to the silence and to the driving smoothness, which will be at the origin of the legendary reliability of the Rolls-Royce.
A Royce collaborator insists for a meeting with Rolls. The moment is opportune : weary of waiting from other constructors for his dream car, Rolls had set up a business of engine production in London since 1902. The meeting takes place in Manchester on May 4, 1904.
Rolls immediately understands the technological advantages of the Royce 10. He will market and sell the cars designed and manufactured by Royce, with a new trademark : Rolls-Royce. At the Paris Motor Show in December 1904, Rolls unveils the Rolls-Royce 10 hp alongside the Royce 10 and exhibits the six-cylinder engine of the future 30 hp.
That 10 hp of the Paris Salon is the fourth vehicle of the Rolls-Royce brand. Its reliability is already excellent : it will be used until 1930 by several successive owners. It was discovered in a farm building in 1950, in the original configuration of all mechanical elements except the gearbox. The original phaeton bodywork by Barker did not survive.
This car is the oldest Rolls-Royce in existence and the only surviving 10 hp from the first year. It is thus the only Rolls-Royce eligible for the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, in which it participated for the first time in 1954 : the rules of this picturesque annual event only accept vehicles made prior to 1905.
This 10 hp from 1904 was sold for £ 3.5M including premium by Bonhams on December 3, 2007, lot 604.
To design his first model, the Royce 10, Henry Royce disassembles and analyzes a two cylinder 1901 Decauville and makes three prototypes. With an intuition which can be described as brilliant, he takes a particular care to the silence and to the driving smoothness, which will be at the origin of the legendary reliability of the Rolls-Royce.
A Royce collaborator insists for a meeting with Rolls. The moment is opportune : weary of waiting from other constructors for his dream car, Rolls had set up a business of engine production in London since 1902. The meeting takes place in Manchester on May 4, 1904.
Rolls immediately understands the technological advantages of the Royce 10. He will market and sell the cars designed and manufactured by Royce, with a new trademark : Rolls-Royce. At the Paris Motor Show in December 1904, Rolls unveils the Rolls-Royce 10 hp alongside the Royce 10 and exhibits the six-cylinder engine of the future 30 hp.
That 10 hp of the Paris Salon is the fourth vehicle of the Rolls-Royce brand. Its reliability is already excellent : it will be used until 1930 by several successive owners. It was discovered in a farm building in 1950, in the original configuration of all mechanical elements except the gearbox. The original phaeton bodywork by Barker did not survive.
This car is the oldest Rolls-Royce in existence and the only surviving 10 hp from the first year. It is thus the only Rolls-Royce eligible for the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, in which it participated for the first time in 1954 : the rules of this picturesque annual event only accept vehicles made prior to 1905.
This 10 hp from 1904 was sold for £ 3.5M including premium by Bonhams on December 3, 2007, lot 604.
