"Spirit of Ecstasy", "Emily", "Silver Lady" or even "Ellie in a nightgown" - all sorts of names and funny nicknames were given to the figurine, which traditionally flaunts on the hood of a Rolls-Royce. The first such statuette was installed in 1911 by the exclusive order of Baron de Montague. The prototype for her was the image of his mistress - Eleanor Velasco Thornton. The figurine preserved the image of Eleanor for a whole century, but the girl's earthly life ended in a tragic way in her youth.
The fashion for figurines on bonnets came at the beginning of the 20th century. Initially, only aristocrats and the rich could afford such jewelry. Later, car firms realized the appeal of such figurines and began to use them as a distinguishing mark.
The author of the first statuette was the sculptor Charles Sykes, for him "Ellie" symbolized the love of speed, she was a tiny patron deity of the motorist, passionate about movement, adoring travel. Baron de Montagu, an avid car enthusiast and author of the first driving manual, was sure that the “Ellie” on the hood would bring him good luck.
The first version of the figurine created by Sykes was called "Whisper", as the half-naked girl stood with her finger pressed to her lips. The second received the modern name "Spirit of Ecstasy". The appearance of Baron de Montagu in public driving his car, decorated with a winged statuette, was considered in the world as another whim of a rich man. However, the figure was so good that many liked it. After a hundred years, the "Spirit of Ecstasy" has not lost its popularity.
A hundred years later, the first figurines have become collectibles, because each of them is unique. The process of their creation has always been painstaking. The figurine of a girl was cast from an alloy of tin or lead, bronze or of stainless steel. The rich could even afford silver or gold talismans. Technological process making figurines was also not easy: they poured a figurine into a mold, which they later broke to get the blank. After it was polished with crushed cherry pits. That is why it is impossible to find two identical ones. Sykes personally signed the first sculptures; today they are of particular interest to antiquarians.
Henry Royce - one of the founding brothers of the legendary automotive company- wary of the idea of decorating the hood with figurines. For a long time he resisted the fact that at least something violated the laconic appearance auto. However, over time, even Royce recognized that the "Spirit of Ecstasy" is worthy of becoming a symbol of Rolls-Royce cars. True, it is significant that he never installed “Ellie” on the hood of his car.
As for the love story of the baron and Eleanor, it turned out to be tragic. In 1915, the baron invited his mistress on a trip to India. It seemed that the moment had come when they could finally be together without hiding their relationship. However, on the way to distant shores, a terrible tragedy occurred: off the coast of the island of Crete, the liner, on which the travelers were, was torpedoed by a German submarine. Everything happened at lightning speed: the ship went under water in a few minutes, and more than 300 passengers out of 500 on board died before they could reach the lifeboats. The German submarine acted in gross violation of the rules, which led to the tragedy: a warning shot was not fired.
None is as valuable and desirable as the Rolls-Royce figurine that flaunts on the hood. That is why the company's engineers have protected the famous emblem with wings from potential intruders who want to steal it.
Every Rolls-Royce since 1920 comes standard with a stainless steel hood emblem. But as an option, this emblem can be ordered with a coating of 24 carat gold. Also, at the request of the customer, the Rolls-Royce emblem can be made from other materials - for example, from matte crystal.
According to some reports, the cost of some exclusive emblems is about 10,000 dollars. Naturally, due to such value, the Rolls-Royce emblem is vulnerable to potential criminals. Unfortunately, until 2003 emblem thefts were recorded all over the world.
But since 2003, it began to equip some car models with a protective mechanism that prevents theft of the emblem.
So on the Phantom model of 2003, a spring mechanism was installed, which automatically, when touching the emblem, removes it under the bonnet space. As a result, stealing the emblem becomes almost impossible.
For drivers inside the car, a special button is provided to control the emblem, which allows you to both raise and lower the emblem. As a result, this measure of protection is that the famous and legendary "Lady with Wings" does not fall into the wrong hands.
He is part of a closed club of automakers who still use figurines to decorate the front of the car. Towering above the front of the hood, the figure of the "Spirit of Ecstasy" or as it is also called the "Flying Woman" is a legendary icon depicting a winged woman flying to meet the future. A small work of art attracts the attention of not only passers-by and connoisseurs, but also thieves who are not averse to profiting from a valuable thing. How English engineers coped with the theft of a unique thing, you can see in this video:
We will tell a slightly different story, which you hardly heard about before. The prototype of the inspired goddess of victory Nike was a real woman named Eleanor Velasco Thornton.
In the early 1900s, John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu-Bewley, commissioned a hood ornament for his Rolls-Royce from English sculptor Charles Robinson Sykes. Sykes fulfilled the order, taking as a source a model - a certain Eleanor Thornton, Montagou's mistress.
To reflect the secret of the relationship, the first model of the figurine, designed by Sykes, put his index finger to his lips and received a proper name: "The Whisperer", "Whisper". It was a talisman that was supposed to protect the car and the owner from trouble on the road, and in life. Lord was so inspired by the idea that he wrote a poem about his new piece of jewelry:
I am a little, perky fairy,
The talisman is on the way.
I will give you a happy time
But I'll stick with reliability.
On the roads of the winding Rhone
Through the ethereal waves of the winds,
Past the charms of the lemon coasts
And golf clubs - I'm taking riders.
Calm down with a dream and a smile,
I will sometimes remind you of my beloved,
And I will rush you towards mistakes,
Or I will test you.
Your courage will please the fairy,
And under the joyful rustle of wheels
I will merge with fun
What my gray Rolls-Royce brings!
In splendid isolation, the fairy did not have to travel long. Automobile ornaments were in vogue at that time, and people with big money could order from the best sculptors copies of the statuette they saw on the Rolls Montagu. So, the party of mascot lovers grew like a snowball. This was noticed even in the company. The automaker did not like that the owners resorted to "handicraft" and make obscure "decorations" on the side, so he asked Sykes, the same sculptor who made the original, to develop a talisman that could be installed on all production cars.
Sykes redid « The Whisperer" V Spirit of Ecstasy , removing the raised hand and making it what we know it today by naming it "by a graceful little goddess, the Spirit of ecstasy, who chose road travel as her supreme pleasure and delight on the nose of a carRolls-Royce to revel in the freshness of the air, and the musical sound of her fluttering drapery.".
Unfortunately, Thornton died shortly after the events described, in 1915. She went on a journey and was on board the SS Persia when the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine in the Mediterranean. The First World War began.
Sometimes beautiful fairy tales end quite in the spirit of thrillers. It happens in life...
The history of Rolls-Royce began on a fine morning on May 4, 1904. In the lobby of the Midland Hotel in Manchester, the young aristocrat Charles Stuart Rolls and the veteran engineer Henry Frederick Royce met and shook hands for the first time. In order to understand how Providence made it possible for these dissimilar gentlemen to meet, we will have to rewind the life path of our heroes several decades ago.
Charles Stewart Rolls was born on August 27, 1877, the son of a Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff of Montmountshire. Rolls did not need money or titles, and the young offspring grew up in an atmosphere of absolute prosperity. He received an excellent education, graduating first preparatory school in Berkshire, and after enrolling in the prestigious Eton College for Boys - a real forge of first-hand British politicians and businessmen. True, politics did not attract the young Rolls - but in college he fell ill with technology. Among his youthful exploits are the installation of a generator in the family mansion and the partial electrification of residential premises. Soon, to this eccentricity, a love of speed was added, which at first he quenched with the help of a bicycle. Charles was even on the student cycling team. But when, in February 1896, at the estate of Sir David Solomons, young Rolls first saw the car, he realized that he really needed it.
I certainly intend to purchase one of these horseless carriages,” Charles wrote to his father. - I'm already saving money.
Didn't have to spend too long. At the age of 17, Charles personally went to Paris, where he chose a 4-horsepower Peugeot Phaeton. True, used. Anyway, Charles became the first student who had his own personal car! Since then, cars have captured all the thoughts of Rolls. He joined the Self-Propelled Transport Association and was also one of the founders of the Royal Automobile Club of Great Britain (RAC). Charles also fell in love with auto racing, not only as a spectator, but also as a participant. In 1900, driving a 12-horsepower Panhard, he won first prize in the amateur pilot category in the 1,000-mile run from London to Edinburgh.
In short, no one was surprised when, shortly after graduating from college, Rolls decided to start his own car business. In 1903, with 6,000 pounds borrowed from his father as a future inheritance, he opens a showroom in Fulham, a prestigious area of London. Rolls & Co. offered buyers wide choose the best, as Charles himself emphasized, are continental models - mainly French Peugeot and Belgian Minerva. A true patriot Rolls from the very beginning was looking for a car worthy of his showroom british brand. But there was no such machine. Until ... Just at this time, three hundred kilometers from London, Henry Royce began work on it.
Patience and work
Royce's path to the historic meeting place at the Midland Hotel in Manchester turned out to be longer - he knew need and poverty from childhood. The future Commander of the Order of the British Empire and the Baronet of Seaton was born on March 27, 1863 in the family of a village miller. Due to the poor health of his father, James Royce, things went extremely badly. In the end, he was forced to mortgage the mill and move to work in London, taking his two sons with him. The younger Charles had to earn a living from an early age. As a varmint of four years old, he drove birds from the fields of neighboring farmers, getting used to earning a labor shilling. In London, Royce Jr. took a job as a newspaper salesman and telegram peddler in the Mayfair area. It is highly likely that it was Charles who was the messenger who brought a congratulatory message to the house of Allan Rolls about the birth of an heir - his future companion.
By then, Royce's father had died, and Henry's life prospects did not promise anything inspiring. Without money, connections and education, he seemed doomed to the unenviable lot of a street vendor or handyman.
Thanks to the spring mechanism at the base modern version The "spirit of ecstasy" at the slightest contact with an obstacle "leaves" down so as not to cause injury to the pedestrian. The button in the cabin helps to protect the elegant lady from kleptomaniacs - just press it, and the figure will hide in the bowels of the hood
Fortunately, Royce's aunt took pity on the boy and promised to pay for his education at the Northern College. railway in Peterborough. It was a chance for a better share. True, after three years, transfers from a kind-hearted relative stopped, and Royce ended up on the street. Worse, the incomplete training meant that he never received the master's qualification, without which it was extremely difficult to get a job. After a long search for Henry with great difficulty got a position as a toolmaker in a workshop in Leeds, where he worked 60 hours a week for a penny.
But soon there was light at the end of the tunnel. In the literal and figurative sense. Royce's interest in electricity from an early age helped land him a job with the London-based Electric Light and Power Company. Here he did not linger. After saving about 20 pounds, Henry decided to start his own business. The electrification of streets and buildings at the end of the 19th century promised considerable benefits, and Royce, who was well versed in the matter, jumped at the chance. Combining a simple capital with 50 pounds, which was contributed by his good friend Ernest Clairmont, the friends started the business.
Royce and Clairmont started out as installers lighting fixtures, but soon in the workshop on Cook Street in Manchester they began to collect own generators, electric motors, lifts. The matter was arguing, and by the beginning of the 90s, the partners were thinking about expanding the business. The gold mine turned out to be the manufacture of cargo electric cranes for ports and harbors.
Henry himself, from a boy who frightened crows and carried the Times, turned into a respectable owner of a luxurious mansion on Lee Road. He became seriously interested in gardening and, perhaps, he would have been breeding ficuses until his retirement, if the profitability of his enterprise had not fallen.
The Boer War at the beginning of the 20th century generally reduced trade turnover, but most importantly, competitors from Germany and the United States entered the electric crane market, offering products at more low prices. Clairmont promptly suggested that his partner rewrite the price tags down, but Royce did not want to hear about it. A new idea was brewing in his bright head.
Oh those French...
On occasion, Henry purchased a used Decauville. This French firm, better known for its locomotives, was a recent car manufacturer, and so Royce found the design frighteningly imperfect. Frankly, it was not so much in Decauville itself, but in the extremely low quality of all cars of that period.
Royce made regular test rides, after which he gave the apprentices detailed instructions on what exactly and how to fix the design. In the end, Henry was convinced that he was right, as well as that he was not perfect. french car and in the spring of 1903 he finally decided to build his own car.
Since all the baggage of knowledge about cars was exhausted by the simple design of Decauville, Henry did not become wiser - taking the French model as a basis, he simply decided to do everything not out of fear, but in good conscience. His car, just like Decauville, received a 2-cylinder gasoline engine working volume of 1.8 liters and a power of 10 hp. But unlike the Frenchwoman who rumbled on idling like an armored train, Royce's engine ran quietly and smoothly. Henry equipped the crankshaft with counterweights, installed the largest possible flywheel and improved the carburetor so that both cylinders received the same amount of equally enriched working mixture. He finalized the clutch, making it possible to move away smoothly, perfected the ignition and cooling system, and the primitive chain drive the drive wheels were replaced with more modern axle shafts.
Finally April 1, 1904 finished car led out of the workshop gate on Cook Street. Without any ceremony, Royce got behind the wheel and ... drove home. The 15-mile trip was uneventful - the car worked like a Swiss chronograph. Task number one is to build decent car- has been completed. Now it remained to find a person who could help with the implementation.
In total, Royce built three 10-horsepower prototypes. The first he used as personal car, the second machine became experimental - Henry tested new ideas on it. The third was given to a certain Henry Edmunds, a business partner and owner of a 30 percent stake in the firm of Royce and Claremont. It was Edmundz, who came to indescribable delight from consumer qualities and the quality factor of the assembly of a 10-horsepower car, and introduced Rolls and Royce.
Best in the world
Charles Stuart Rolls is an aristocrat, rich man, adventurer and one of the founders of Rolls-Royce. He generously shared his love for cars with a passion for the sky. On July 12, 1910, during a demonstration flight, Rolls' plane fell apart in the air, and Charles became the first Briton to die in a plane crash.
So, on May 4, the historic rendezvous of Rolls and Royce took place. The unsuccessful gardener's 10-horsepower car made the right impression, and the result of a business meeting was a gentleman's agreement, according to which Charles Rolls would sell Henry Royce's cars under Rolls-Royce brand. The official contract was sealed on December 23, 1904. By that time, Royce had already established the production of four types of chassis with power from 10 to 30 hp. and costing from 395 to 890 pounds.
As the partners expected, the cars attracted attention, first of all, with silent operation, and after that, the happy owners could not get enough of the phenomenal reliability. One of the first buyers of the 10-horsepower model was a certain Sidney Gammel from Aberdeenshire. It's hard to believe, but by 1923 his car will roll 160 thousand kilometers along the mountain roads of Scotland without a single breakdown!
In the first two and a half years, Rolls sold 99 chassis, with most in demand the most expensive 20-horsepower and 30-horsepower models were used - respectively 40 and 37 realized chassis. It was an absolute success. Soon the firms of Rolls and Royce were transformed into Rolls-Royce Limited with an authorized capital of 200,000 pounds, and from the cramped workshops on Cook Street in Manchester, the assembly plant was transferred to new plant built on 13 acres of land in Derbyshire.
“Instead of making cars in in large numbers at low prices, we intend to produce a limited number of machines top quality! - At the opening ceremony of the new enterprise, Charles Rolls finally formulated the philosophy of the company. “Our cars can’t be cheap, because we have the best mechanics and workers in the world, not to mention the fact that Mr. Royce, the world’s best automotive engineer, is developing new models!”
And these were not empty words. By that time, Royce had created a machine worthy of being called the very best. If the first models of the company were more or less modernized versions of the same Decauville, then the 40/50 h.p. was original and advanced design. It was based on a strong and lightweight frame, but the main thing is the engine brought to perfection, which glorified Rolls-Royce all over the world. It seems nothing revolutionary: an in-line lower-valve "six" with a volume of 7 liters. The most common combination for that time. The secret, as always, was meticulousness and quality. For example, the crankshaft was supported by seven main bearings and was equipped with a forced lubrication system that provides enviable durability. Even more impressive was the firm smoothness and soundlessness of the work. Roy has outdone himself here. Unlike competitors who tightly screwed the engine to the frame, Charles used the motor mount on elastic supports, which significantly reduced vibration. The smooth operation of the motor was also facilitated by a finely calibrated two-chamber carburetor and a dual exhaust manifold.
“The sound of this motor can be compared with the work of sewing machine! - enthusiastically wrote the English Autocar. “And the smooth and confident engine thrust is simply amazing - it seems that you are not driving along the road, but hovering over it!”
Especially for the press, the commercial director of Rolls-Royce, Claude Johnson, arranged an almost circus trick. He put a shilling edge-on on the radiator of a running engine and added gas - the coin did not fall!
It was the 40/50 h.p. model, better known as the Silver Ghost, that turned Rolls-Royce from a solidly standing English car company into worldwide fame. " Silver Ghost"was produced for a long 19 years and was known as a very expensive car. Excellent smoothness, fantastically quiet engine operation and amazing reliability could only powers of the world this. Indian Maharajas and the last Russian Tsar, American business tycoons and sophisticated European nobility rolled out on the Silver Ghost.
In a word, the matter remained small - to come up with the best emblem in the world for the best car in the world.
History in ecstasy
The fact is that at first there were no insignia on Royce's cars at all. Even corporate logo Rolls-Royce - a rectangular die with the famous double R - did not appear immediately. Several of the first cars produced on Cook Street in Manchester were decorated with a modest oval copper plaque with the inscription Rolls-Royce radiator. Only in the middle of 1905, the monograms of the names of the founders of the company took their rightful place on the pediment. At first, the stamped letters remained unpainted, then the letters became red, and starting from 1933 - black. The latter circumstance, contrary to the popular version, is by no means connected with the death of Henry Royce, who died in the same 1933. It's just that the red letters did not always look favorably against the background of some body color options. Imagine, for example, a combination of red letters with green enamel. Well, since the black color is extremely universal, then according to one of Royce's last lifetime orders, the famous monogram on company emblem darkened.
The story of the appearance of the “Spirit of Ecstasy” figurine on the hood is much more interesting, if not piquant. It all started... with a passion for cheap effects. Motorists of the early 20th century, some for fun, and some out of a desire to emphasize their own social status, decorated cars with various kinds of figurines and talismans. I must say, half-dressed beauties, cats of all stripes, golfers and polo players, dolls and even policemen who crowned the hoods of Rolls-Royce did not please the company's management too much. And then Claude Johnson, the commercial director of the company, decided that since the habit of owners, which had taken the form of an epidemic, could not be eliminated, then at least it could be given a graceful form. The development of a symbol corresponding to the prestige and status of Rolls-Royce was entrusted to Charles Sykes, a well-known artist and sculptor who worked in the first English automotive magazine Cars Illustrated.
If Johnson had the talent of a draftsman, he himself would have created the Rolls-Royce symbol. In his view, the figurine was supposed to resemble the image of Nike, the goddess of victory in Greek mythology. But Sykes had his own opinion on this matter. Nika seemed to him too militant and not feminine enough. In search of inspiration, he turned to Eleanor Thornton - the secretary, or rather, the personal assistant to the publisher of Cars Illustrated, Lord John Montagu.
In fact, Thornton and Montagu were much more than just friends. Earlier, the same Sykes, commissioned by the lord, made for his personal Rolls-Royce a figure of a girl in flowing clothes, whose finger is pressed to her lips. The model, by the way, was Eleanor. Only close friends of Montague knew that the elegant sculpture symbolized the secret connection between two lovers.
Not surprisingly, the artist again asked Miss Thornton to work as a model, and in February 1911 he presented a work called "The Spirit of Speed".
The graceful goddess embodies the spirit of ecstasy, and the highest grace for her is the movement by car, - Sykes painted his creation. - The joy of movement is obvious in outstretched arms, and her gaze is directed into the distance!
Claude Johnson was very pleased and only changed the name of the figurine to "The Spirit of Ecstasy".
Henry Royce himself was rather skeptical about the emblem. In his opinion, the “lady on the hood” only interfered with visibility, and Henry himself preferred to drive a car without a branded sculpture. The patriarch did not like high-society vulgarities either - aware of the spicy history of the creation of the figurine, they irreverently called the Rolls-Royce emblem “Ellie in a nightgown”. However, at that time, Mr. Royce was too ill to worry about such trifles, so the issue of installing the "Spirit of Ecstasy" on the hoods of Rolls-Royce was decided positively.
The figurine first appeared in the company's catalogs in 1911, and initially only as additional option. For the first four years, the figurine was covered with real silver, and only more frequent cases of vandalism forced the company to switch to a less valuable alloy of nickel and zinc. The popularity of the spectacular symbol had by then become ubiquitous, and since 1920 the "Spirit of Ecstasy" has become a standard equipment of all Rolls-Royce cars and remains so to this day.
Admiring the "Spirit of Ecstasy" today, it seems that the figure of Eleanor Thornton has not changed a bit. But it is not so. Rolls-Royce emblem underwent at least eleven surgeries. However, they concerned only proportions, which brought it to a common denominator with the changing dimensions of the cars themselves.
The only exception is the so-called "Bowed Lady". In 1936, Sykes, especially for the Rolls-Royce Phantom III, created new version"The Spirit of Ecstasy", in which the female figure knelt. However, restyled version did not take root, and after 1956 the famous original took its place.
Danila Mikhailov
For centuries, love determined the development of world art. Behind every masterpiece is an untold story of feelings, and everyone has their own story. The images of the muses, surrounded by a mysterious halo, are immortalized in works of literature, painting and music. And only one was destined to find immortality in the legendary symbol of the most luxurious brand in the world.
At the beginning of the century before last, Lord Montagu, an amateur luxury cars, founder and editor of The Car Illustrated magazine, commissioned modernist sculptor C. Sykes to make a mascot for his Rolls-Royce. The model for the mascot was the personal secretary of the lord, the excellent Eleanor Thornton, who had beauty, intelligence, character, but whose social status did not allow her to marry the lord. Their feelings were full of passion and did not need words or explanations, so the architect, inspired by the depth of feelings of misalliance, embodied the image of Eleanor in a bronze figurine, timidly putting her finger to her lips as a sign of the secret connecting the fate of the assistant and the wealthy lord...
This figurine, called "Whisper", Ch. Sykes finalized in 1911, giving her even more dynamism, grace and at the same time a new name. From that moment on, she began to decorate the hood of everyone Rolls-Royce car. "Flying Lady", or "Spirit of Ecstasy" ─ this was the new name of the talisman. However, Miss Thornton herself did not live to see worldwide fame.
Deciding on a romantic escape with her lover, Eleanor tragically died in a shipwreck off the coast of Crete in 1915. It was assumed that Lord Montagu also drowned, but he survived and enjoyed reading his obituary in The Times with great pleasure. Lord Montagu kept in his heart the memories of his Eleanor, and her image gained immortality in the figurine of the “Flying Lady”, which embodied this tragic and great story love.
Since then, the "Spirit of Ecstasy" has become a symbol of the brand, a muse that inspired Rolls-Royce's unique creations. In honor of the centenary of the talisman, the brand commissioned a series of 100 photographs from renowned artist John Rankin, revealing a new vision of the legendary image.
And last year, Rolls-Royce decided to revive the Flying Lady in the car of the future. Thus, Eleanor became the artificial intelligence and voice of the new concept of the unmanned Rolls-Royce 103 EX, and at the same time a reliable assistant to every Rolls-Royce owner. The house of Rolls-Royce later paid tribute to the Spirit of Ecstasy in a short film in which Oscar-winning Kate Winslet told the fascinating story of the brand's birth as The Flying Lady on behalf of Rolls-Royce.
Today, the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine is one of the most recognizable symbols in the world, embodying beauty, luxury and a tribute to eternal love, silently showing the way to every Rolls-Royce customer.
