Reaching For The Stars, Rolls Royce Presents The Phantom Astrum

UAE’s capital city, Abu Dhabi welcomes the arrival of Rolls Royce Motor Cars’ magnificent new masterpiece, the Phantom Astrum.

This eagerly-anticipated, one-off example of the marque’s excellence was created exclusively for a Middle Eastern client by the Bespoke Collective of specialists at Rolls Royce, Goodwood.

Rolls Royce Motor Cars’ regional director for Middle East and Africa, César Habib, remarked, “The Gallery is a feature unique to Phantom where owners can display a commissioned work of art that captures their individual tastes, interests and character, the ultimate expression of luxury and personalisation available in a motor car. Created exclusively for Abu Dhabi, the Phantom Sapphire Astrum is a spectacular example of what is possible. We are delighted to share this magnificent cosmic vista with our clients, and trust it will inspire their own creative visions.”

To paint a picture, the car’s centrepiece is the specially-commissioned Sapphire Astrum Gallery, designed and made by leading British contemporary silversmith and jeweller Richard Fox.

Displayed behind a single pane of glass running the full width of the fascia, said artwork portrays a starburst of solid silver spears radiating from a brilliant-cut diamond set in platinum. 

Each spear is polished and soldered in place by hand, tipped with a pear-cut sapphire stone encased in Bleu de Nuit, a rich sapphire lacquer that reflects and intensifies their magnificent colours. 

Its backing is made using the guilloché technique, in which a highly precise, intricate repeating pattern is engraved into the surface using a special lathe.

The dashboard clock compliments the Gallery with a sterling silver surround decorated with a guilloché pattern, with a matching Sapphire Blue lacquer overlaying it to give depth and iridescence.

Completing the theme, the Phantom Sapphire Astrum’s exterior is finished in a chic Milori Sapphire with a hand-painted Tan coachline, and body-coloured wheel centres with a single Tan pinstripe. 

Fox Silver’s jewellery specialist and founder, Richard Fox, concluded, “Astrum has an immediate impression of weightless suspension, almost as though gravity does not exist in this Gallery piece. The central diamond, encased in platinum, is like a star, floating in the depths of space with a starburst of solid silver spears. The spears also give an incredible sense of movement and focus, in the way that they radiate from the central brilliant-cut diamond.”