Rolls-Royce has unveiled the Phantom Hummingbird – a bespoke commission featuring abalone-shell interior marquetry.
The Phantom Extended Private Commission was created in tribute to a client’s wife through Private Office Dubai. Inspired by the hummingbird and its associations with joy, resilience and an appreciation of nature, the commission celebrates the detail and beauty of the natural world.
“The natural world has always been a rich source of inspiration for Rolls-Royce Bespoke commissions, offering extraordinary forms and colors for our designers and craftspeople to interpret,” said Phil Fabre de la Grange, head of bespoke, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
“Our clients continually invite us to explore that inspiration in new and unexpected ways, as this remarkable Private Commission so perfectly demonstrates. The introduction of abalone shell into Rolls-Royce marquetry presented our designers and craftspeople with a fresh creative and technical challenge, resulting in an elegant tribute to the hummingbird’s mesmerising presence.”
The Phantom Hummingbird is the first Rolls-Royce Private Commission to feature marquetry made with abalone shell. Its naturally iridescent nacre produces blue-green tones as it interacts with light, the auto maker said, while mother-of-pearl is used alongside it to depict the shimmering feathers of the hummingbird. A hand-painted hummingbird motif completes the exterior Coachline.
Capturing nature’s iridescence
The marquetry is arranged across two interior compositions. Each picnic table features a hummingbird made from 53 individual pieces of abalone shell and mother-of-pearl, including 18 pieces in the wings. The rear waterfall panel between the rear seats features a botanical motif comprising 84 pieces.
The marquetry took more than nine months to develop, with designers, engineers and craftspeople refining methods for cutting, finishing and positioning the delicate material. Abalone shell is particularly fine and brittle, requiring careful handling throughout the process.
Six iterations were required to develop a suitable technique for working with the delicate material. The final process involved reducing the thickness of the mother-of-pearl and abalone shell so each fragment could be positioned securely before being lacquered. This approach was intended to preserve the material’s appearance while providing the durability required for long-term use.
Each piece of abalone shell and mother-of-pearl has been laser-cut 0.06mm larger than its final dimensions to account for the laser’s burn margin, then filed by hand to the required shape. Craftspeople refine each edge so that it meets the adjoining piece without a visible seam, particularly in the hummingbird’s wings where precise fitting is required. Once cut and fitted, each picnic table and the rear waterfall panel took a further eight hours to complete, with the three panels requiring 45 hours in total.
A palette shaped by nature
The interior color palette is designed to complement the abalone marquetry. Ash burr veneer forms the background for all three marquetry panels, while silver birch has been used within the picnic table motifs. The silver birch was cut from a single log selected and examined to ensure its grain pattern complemented the overall composition.
Seating is trimmed in creme light leather with moccasin and tan detailing, set against seashell carpets beneath a starlight headliner.
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