Rolls-Royce has revealed Phantom Hummingbird, a one-off Phantom Extended commissioned as a tribute to its owner's wife and developed through Private Office Dubai. The important change is not mechanical. It is the first Rolls-Royce to use abalone shell in marquetry, combining the material with mother-of-pearl to reproduce the changing colours of hummingbird plumage.
Each of the two rear Picnic Tables carries a hummingbird made from 53 individual pieces of abalone and mother-of-pearl, including 18 pieces in the wings. Between the rear seats, the Rear Waterfall panel carries a separate botanical composition made from 84 pieces.
According to Rolls-Royce, developing a workable process took more than nine months and six iterations. Abalone shell is unusually fine and brittle, so the pieces are laser-cut 0.06 mm oversize to account for the laser's burn margin and then filed by hand to their final dimensions. Finishing the three completed marquetry panels required 45 hours in total.
The rest of the commission follows the same natural theme. Ash Burr veneer forms the background to the marquetry, while selected Silver Birch is used within the Picnic Table designs. Creme Light leather is paired with Moccasin and Tan detailing, Seashell carpets and a Starlight Headliner. Outside, the lower body is painted Wildberry and the upper body White Sands. A hand-applied White Sands Coachline includes another hummingbird motif.
Phantom Hummingbird is a useful example of how far Rolls-Royce's private-commission work now extends beyond colour and trim selection. Here, the engineering challenge was to make a fragile natural material durable and precise enough for a car interior, while preserving the visual effect that prompted the client to choose it in the first place.