The famous ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’, the statue that adorns the nose of Rolls-Royces, has been around for 110 years. You could say that an icon in the car industry.
For the origin of the Spirit of Ecstasy we have to go back to the first decade of the 20th century. At the time, Rolls-Royce only delivered its cars with the well-known logo, the double R, but there were many customers who wanted something more special. That is why they screwed their own mascots on it. One of them was Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, who founded the magazine The Car Illustrated clearly had a thing for cars. One of his designers, Charles Sykes, was put to work to come up with a design. It resulted in ‘The Whisper’. It was supposed to represent the young Eleonora Thornton, with whom the Lord was having an affair. Her whispering was a reference to the fact that they were in a secret relationship.
‘The Whisper’
Although the design of ‘The Whisper’ dates from 1909 and Lord Montagu already had the logo on his Phantom at that time, the origin of the Spirit of Ecstasy dates back to 1911.6 February 1911 to see exactly, so exactly 110 years ago last weekend. That’s when Rolls-Royce fixed the standard logo, because director Claude Johnson no longer wanted to see all kinds of different mascots on the cars. Sykes had been commissioned to come up with a design and came up with a slightly modified version of ‘The Whisper’. Thornton was like that on many Rolls-Royces from that moment on. In the 1920s it was delivered as standard.
Eventually, in the 1930s, the design was revised again and then they laid the foundation for the Spirit of Ecstasy as we know it today. The ‘Kneeling Lady’, this was called. It was again a lady with a fluttering dress around her, but now she knelt and the finger to her mouth was gone. Instead, she held back both her arms and seemed to have wings as a result. A later version, the ‘Flying Lady’ is the Spirit of Ecstasy as we know it today. It is much the same, except the lady is standing, albeit slightly bent.
Recently, some notable modernisations have emerged for the Flying Lady. For example, the statue has been concealed in the nose of the car for about ten years to prevent theft. In addition, the Spirit of Ecstasy can optionally also be illuminated. An option of no less than € 4,000. This is no longer allowed in Europe. Anyone who already has it on the car must have it removed. In any case, the illuminated ornament will be replaced by a chrome one, but you can then choose to get the money back or to tick a new option.