REVIEW --- Icons: Auctioning a Chic Old 'Ghost'
One of the 130 luxe motorcars and motorcycles heading to the auction block next week is a rare Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost -- one with an American pedigree.</br></br>The 1920 car is a relic of Rolls's decade-long venture into production in Springfield, Mass. Seymour Knox Jr., an heir to the Woolworth fortune, got it from his mother for his 23rd birthday. The first American-finished Silver Ghost roadster, it's expected to sell for $450,000-$600,000 at the Bonhams flagship motors auction Thursday and Friday in Carmel, Calif.</br></br>The London-based auction house is expecting a strong sale, stock-market downturn or not. The antique luxury car market's "steady upward slope since the mid-1990s" wasn't dented by the last recession, says Rupert Banner, vice president of business development in the International Motoring Department at Bonhams. Supply of the cars "is starting to dry up," he adds.</br></br>Silver Ghosts (so named for their speed and their silence) achieved fame before World War I. During the war some were turned into mini tanks and armored cars. T.E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia," adored his version ("A Rolls in the desert is above rubies," he once said).</br></br>After the war, Rolls expected lighter demand in Europe, so in 1920 the company acquired a former motorcycle factory in Springfield, partly to introduce Silver Ghosts to Americans. Roger Morrison, president of the Silver Ghost Association, estimates the cost of the Knox Ghost at about $13,000. Mr. Knox's car still had a U.K.-built chassis; full production began in Springfield by 1921.