SOLD, $905,000
Muffy’s “pick of the auction:” selling NO RESERVE to the highest bidder, this 1914 Rolls Royce Alpine Eagle was originally owned by His Grace the Duke of Westminster and armored for combat in the Arabian Desert to fight the Ottoman Turks and their Central Powers allies.
T.E. Lawrence, widely known as Lawrence of Arabia, once wrote “More valuable…than rubies in the desert.” The great British warrior, archaeologist, diplomat, and writer was referring to the fleet of armored Rolls-Royces commissioned for fighting in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign by the British Empire and Arab Revolt allies against the Ottoman Empire and the Imperial German allies.
By October of 1914 all Rolls-Royce production of civilian motorcars had ceased as the company fulfilled the requests of the British war office to produce armor plated Silver Ghosts. These vehicles were based on the same chassis used in the grueling Austrian Alpine Trials of 1913 by the factory rally team known as the Alpine Eagles.
Chassis 34LB was ordered in July 1914 by His Grace the Duke of Westminster and built to full Alpine Eagle Specifications. It was returned to Rolls-Royce in 1916 to be fitted with armor before being shipped to Egypt and Palestine. After service in the War, it was returned to Rolls-Royce in 1920 and rebuilt for civilian use.
It is fitted with a tri-pod turret and a display-only, non-working Maxim .30 caliber machine gun.