Rolls-Royce Phantom Concept Artwork Will Blow Your Mind

The cabin of a Rolls-Royce is probably the finest place to be anywhere on four wheels, as the exquisite craftsmanship, luxury and the feel-good factor are very hard to replicate by other carmakers. But when Goodwood’s Bespoke division gets involved, things start to get really special, making the passengers feel like they’re in a rolling art gallery.

The Bespoke Collective, Rolls-Royce’s elite team of designers, engineers and craftspeople, has introduced four new craft techniques inspired by the decorative arts that are impressive even for the very few who are accustomed to Rolls-Royce Bespoke artistry.

On display at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London, Mayfair, during London Craft Week (May 11-17), the four new craft techniques explore texture, material and depth influenced by art, haute couture, fine jewelry and architecture.

They include the first-ever application of hand-sculpted 3D metal within a Rolls-Royce Gallery, the first showcase of a layered 3D veneer that integrates brass elements, 3D leather sculpting applied by hand to create realistic form, and beadwork application.

To showcase the potential of these innovations, Rolls-Royce artisans built two concept pieces at the scale of a Phantom Gallery, which is the name of the uninterrupted glass-covered dashboard panel that protects and displays artwork inside the super luxury sedan.

Both works of combine hand and machine craftsmanship, with the latter including laser cutting, waterjet shaping and digital pattern drafting that are used to achieve shapes that no hand could repeat with the same accuracy. Those are followed up by hand-engraving, hand-painting, hand-embroidery and hand-sculpting to give the work its individual character.

There’s No Way Those Pomegranates Are Not Real

Perhaps the most impressive of the two is the one called ‘Legacy Craft: Inspired by Still Life,’ which draws inspiration from the ‘nature morte’ paintings of the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age and the embroidery traditions revived by the Arts and Crafts movement.

Rolls-Royce’s Interior Trim Centre artisans composed a still-life arrangement of fruit and flowers in a three-dimensional form using a stunning combination of materials, textures and contemporary craft techniques.

The concept artwork debuts the first application of 3D leather sculpting and beadwork, with the hydrangeas being constructed from 50 individual flowers, each hand-sculpted from leather and painted by hand. Their leaves are formed entirely from thread using a newly developed style called Sphinx Moth 3D embroidery.


The pomegranates are embroidered using the alternate stitch technique, with the 76 jewel-like beads being individually hand-sewn to form the seeds that replicate the ruby translucence of the real fruit. This concept piece took more than 250 hours of handwork to complete.

‘Legacy Craft: Inspired by The Draught’

The second concept piece is called ‘Legacy Craft: Inspired by The Draught’ and brings together 3D metal hand-sculpting and layered 3D veneer with brass elements. Created by specialists from Rolls-Royce’s Interior Surface Centre as a piece of fine jewelry, it uses four historical techniques.

Those include the draught (the technical drawing a craftsman uses to guide architectural work), scribing (the act of marking a surface to guide cutting and carving), strapwork (the interlaced, band-like motif of Elizabethan and Jacobean ornament), and ferramenta (the ironwork support grid used to retain stained glass).

The 3D veneer uses multiple layers of laser-cut wood finished with bass inserts that catch the light like fine jewelry. The concept piece culminates in a three-dimensional, jewelry-like flower, formed from five layers of brass, each cut into petal shapes using an advanced waterjet. This detail alone took over 45 hours to complete. The left side of the Gallery also features 3D marquetry and a delicate brass lattice applied over the veneer and completed with subtle laser engraving for added texture. 


“The concepts we present here are a playful expression of our craftspeople’s creative spirit. They show how hand and machine can work in concert, how a 17th-century still life or a Jacobean strapwork motif can become a modern sculptural form, and how Rolls-Royce is both a custodian and an accelerator of rare craft skills,” said Phil Fabre de la Grange, Head of Bespoke, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.


Expect to see this type of artistry in highly customized Rolls-Royce Phantoms costing obscene sums of money soon.