It's astonishingly gorgeous, so well-appointed and dashing. That green vehicle is as well; I'm referring to the haberdashery-perfect gentleman, snapping a photo. Snappy, indeed!
77
Karl Kardel is a pretty well known painting contractor cum color consultant and waterproofing expert here in the East Bay. My eyes nearly popped when I read he’s the owner of this collectible automobile.
Hey Karl, what other tricks do you have up your sleeve? Pretty cool.
37
I assume it does not have A/C, unlike American luxury cars of the era?
6
Elizabeth Taylor, she was truly beautiful and nutty as a fruitcake, in true celebrity fashion of the day. Those were actually great years and the car.......oh my! I remember her eyes because I was so jealous of her for having them. I love the car. Would that I had the money to own it...even for a little while.
24
Never mind - according to the Guernsey’s auction house website, it does have A/C, but the system needs repair!
11
I hope this brings back British Racing Green. I've long been passionate about this car color ... but you can't find it today. Not this exact classic shade! Another reason to love Fisher/Taylor & Kardel! Thank you for saving something so perfect!
57
It’s not a coupe, it’s a convertible.
24
I love the comments on this article... as a car lover, it's nice to see the beauty and history of this one appeal to various types of folks. It's also nice to read a piece like this in the times that combines art, commerce, history, celebrity gossip, and Carpathian elm.
That said, I would have absolutely loved to see this car auctioned on 'bring a trailer' only to spend hours reading what would have been the most ridiculous comments. That site - known also as BaT - attracts the most passionate car people, whose wit and knowledge elevate a commercial marketplace into an almost daily must read.
I just wish I had the funds, and the garage space, to buy everything that I fancied.
This green beauty would certainly be front and center. As they say, good luck with the auction!
31
I miss the old school celebrities. There was a higher sense of glamour, not to mention such undeniable beauty. Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Greta Garbo, and Elizabeth Taylor.... we just do not have that anymore.
121
I dont know what to say, the article was touching and gave us a glimpse into the past. The vehicle is beautiful and I hope the next owner gives it tender loving care as Mr. Kardel did.
I know it must be extremely difficult to sell this piece of art. It couldn't have been an easy decision. However, I am hopeful that the car will be loved and cherished by the next owner.
A beautiful piece of the past will live on, in the same manner that the good works Ms. Taylor accomplished live on.
38
This story reminds me of the movie "The Yellow Rolls-Royce". Of course the most beautiful actress in the world deserved the most beautiful car in the world; that green is a knockout. I hope the next owner loves the car as much as Liz did....
40
Vintage high end British cars are a metaphor for the UK today: historic, beautiful in a longing-for-the-past way, a statement about manners and elegance long gone by, and a hopelessly dysfunctional thing when viewed through a practical or modern lens.
86
who is that impossibly handsome, wealthy banker in the photograph? i thought this picture was taken in 1950. Lord almighty!
41
@H
The NYT photographer apparently agreed with your opinion as the gentleman in question is in perfect focus while the "exotic Carpathian elm burl wood" purported subject of the photo is a blurry mess.
51
@H I actually know him! He’s one of the executives at the Pierre. Wonderful person and always impeccably dressed.
63
Hey, Jerry Seinfeld, you listening?
9
@DF Seinfeld took out a late model Rolls Royce to usher Ricky Gervais around in for a recent Coffee in Cars with Comedians.
7
@Dr. Reality - that's right. And it's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (although fellow comedians say it all wrong on purpose to be funny, so maybe you are too).
4
@DF More up Jay Leno's alley.
9
According to NADA Auto valuations, a high end value for a 1961 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II Drophead Coupe is $272,000.
Hagerty values it around $400,000.
$1 to $2 million? Nuts!
9
@Bernie
Relative to incomes, I bet your car takes a bigger bite of your wallet than this car will from its buyers.
10
@Bernie
...but none were owned by a Hollywood legend.
8
@Bernie ____Nuts? Someone just paid $40 MILLION for a 'Da Vinci' - perhaps.
3
One of the last true classic cars. But to refer to it, as the article does, as a “Rolls” is a vulgarism. It is a Rolls-Royce. Always.
26
@JJM I wonder if Liz ever took to Rolls to Frisco.
32
daydreams!
If I bought that car I would be living in a house on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I'd have a room built that faced that view with exterior roller shades to protect the contents of the room from sun damage.
That room would have a mural on both the opposite side and back wall. That mural would be of a drive-in theater scene with the focus being in 1961, but on the surrounding fence would be the framed movie posters of every movie Elizabeth had starred in. The ceiling would feature the night-scape of twinkling stars of 27-February-1932. There would deep pile dark gray carpet. I park this car in the middle of this room and would sit in with family and friends to watch movies on the unused wall.
Good thing to have an imagination when one doesn't have the money. :)
142
The car is being shipped to NYC for auction because NYC is the center of the universe! (I live in ATL but I am a native New Yorker)!
19
It's a beautiful car, I hope the next owner enjoys it.
18
Yes, it's preposterously beautiful, and I'm completely unashamed to say I'd like to have it, myself. If you remember the opening reel of George Stevens' "Giant," that countryside is of this county. The car looks to have been made to live here, pleasantly.
14
She was always speeding about in a sports car in "Butterfield 8." If she never had a license, perhaps that's why she had a fatal car accident at the end of the film.
25
@M: Yes, and how about, A Place in the Sun? She drove in that one too. No studio would have risked her being without a license. But I do know from a friend, she never went to the supermarket, or entered a bank I. Her life. She was quite helpless without servants.
14
Why would you ship the car all the way back to NYC to sell it at a non-car auction or auction house when Monterey Car Week is coming up and there are going to be so many better opportunities to sell a car like this there.
19
@Eric
Because the "real" money is in NYC.
20
@Eric because besides being owned by Ms. Taylor there is nothing very special about this car. I doubt they would even accept it on the block at Monterey. Those cars are in a completely different class, this is just another 60s Rolls Royce.
15
I bid on several items in Liz's 2011 auction and did not win anything because the bidding went nuts over the last 24 hours. Her hair brushes were selling in the hundreds of dollars and each piece of jewelry went for tens of thousands of dollars. So this car could hit $10 million if 2 or more bidders go crazy over it.
19
“I don’t think Elizabeth ever had a driver’s license.”
It's wonderful to learn that I have at least one thing in common with one of the most talented, ravishingly- beautiful and fascinating people in the history of arts and entertainment --
It almost makes want to go out and learn how to drive ...
28
@Howard G. Robert Moses, who built so many roads and highways around New York, didn't drive either.
Having grown up in Manhattan myself, I never got beyond a learners permit, even 'tho I learned to drive.
There have been a few times that this was a problem,
but overall I think I lucked out. Mostly because friends have their cars as an albatross that needs much attention as if these vehicles were children.
25
A beautiful car and certainly one meant to be driven by the owner. Luxurious and drop-dead gorgeous - a rolling work of art.
59
For a split second, I thought that was Cary grant taking a photo with his iPhone.
101
@Rebecca
LOL - I thought the same thing. The hair and pinstriped suit from a bygone era...
19
I'm not normally a car person, but that is gorgeous.
91