UNVEILING PHANTOM HUMMINGBIRD: THE FIRST ROLLS-ROYCE IN HISTORY WITH ABALONE SHELL MARQUETRY

• Phantom Extended Private Commission contains pioneering, first-ever use of abalone shell marquetry in a Rolls-Royce motor car
• Abalone shell used to echo the iridescence of hummingbird plumage, celebrating the intricate beauty of the natural world
• Hummingbird motifs placed on each Picnic Table; botanical motif on the Waterfall section uses the same materials
• Each hummingbird formed from 53 pieces of mother-of-pearl and abalone shell; the botanical motif comprises 84 pieces
• Commissioned as private tribute to the client’s wife and curated by Private Office Dubai

“The natural world has always been a rich source of inspiration for Rolls-Royce Bespoke commissions, offering extraordinary forms and colours for our designers and craftspeople to interpret. 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.”
Phil Fabre de la Grange, Head of Bespoke, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


Rolls-Royce Motor Cars presents Phantom Hummingbird, a Phantom Extended Private Commission conceived in tribute to a client’s wife and brought to life through Private Office Dubai. Named after the hummingbird – a symbol of joy, resilience and the ability to find beauty in every moment – this motor car was envisioned to celebrate the intricate beauty of the natural world.

In a Rolls-Royce first, this Private Commission incorporates marquetry created with the abalone shell, prized for its extraordinary natural iridescence: the nacreous inner surface of the shell produces a hallmark blue-green lustre when it interacts with light. Here, the material is combined with mother-of-pearl to depict the shimmering feathers of a hummingbird, one of the most colourful creatures on earth. The bird’s vivid hues arise from microscopic structures within the feathers that split and reflect light like tiny prisms, creating flashes of colour that change with the viewing angle. A hand-painted hummingbird completes the exterior Coachline.



MARQUETRY: CAPTURING NATURE’S IRIDESCENCE

The delicate marquetry unfolds across two distinct compositions. A hummingbird takes flight on each Picnic Table, each formed from 53 individual pieces of abalone shell and mother-of-pearl – 18 pieces are contained within the wings alone. A botanical motif of 84 pieces unfurls on the Rear Waterfall panel, set between the two rear seats. Developed over more than nine months in total, the composition asked a great deal of the material and the craftspeople who had to learn how to work with it: abalone shell is unusually fine and brittle, and the Bespoke Collective’s designers, engineers and craftspeople spent much of the development period perfecting how each fragment would be cut, finished and seated within the veneer.

Six iterations were required before a suitable technique was discovered for this delicate material. The final process required craftspeople to first reduce the thickness of the pearl and abalone, so that each fragment could be set gently but firmly into place, before being lacquered, balancing the beauty of the material with the longevity expected of a motor car conceived to be passed down through generations.

Every piece of abalone shell and mother-of-pearl is laser-cut 0.06 mm larger than its final size to allow for the laser’s own burn margin, then filed to its precise shape by hand. Each individual edge is worked until it meets its neighbour with no visible seam – an essential step for certain elements – in particular, the hummingbird’s wings, where only a human hand can achieve a suitably precise fit. Once cut and fitted, each Picnic Table and the Rear Waterfall panel took a further eight hours to complete, totalling 45 hours across the three panels.



INTERIOR SUITE: A PALETTE SHAPED BY NATURE

The colour palette of the interior suite has been carefully curated to complement the pioneering abalone marquetry. Ash Burr veneer forms the background across all three marquetry panels; Silver Birch appears within the Picnic Table motifs, playing an integral part within the design and cut entirely from a single log which was selected and then minutely examined to ensure its grain pattern complemented the composition.

Seating is trimmed in Creme Light leather with Moccasin and Tan detailing, set against Seashell carpets beneath a Starlight Headliner.



FINISHING DETAILS: A CONTINUATION OF THE THEME

Echoing the interior theme, the lower body is presented in Wildberry with the upper body in White Sands; the two-tone division traced by a hand-applied White Sands Coachline, in which a hummingbird takes flight along the generous length of the motor car.