The Spirit of Ecstasy - A signature of wealth

Every petrolhead knows that flying lady that prances on top of pretty much every Rolls Royce, even most non-petrolheads know they’re looking at a very expensive car, as soon as they see that ornament on top of a car’s bonnet.
The Spirit of Ecstasy, often referred to as “The Flying Lady” is Rolls Royce’s bonnet ornament. It resembles a bend over woman with her arm stretched out behind her. Billowing cloths run from her arm to her back, resembling the wings.

In the early days of Rolls Royce their cars didn’t feature an ornament at all, they just simply had the Rolls Royce emblem and nothing else.
Yet there had been quite a bit of complaints coming from the customers, they said that prestigious and luxurious cars like this needed something more, they wanted Rolls Royce to design and add their own unique mascot.

Before the introduction of the Spirit of Ecstasy it was possible to get a ornament, but only if you had the money of course.
For example look at the 1910 Rolls Royce 40/50 HP Silver Ghost Croall Shooting Brake.
Back then Shooting Brakes were only really affordable for the wealthiest people, they were designed so the owners could go out and hunt and take whatever they caught with them in the back of the car, with hunting being very popular at the time.
So it’s only logical that the car has an ornament that resembles that, so hence why it looks like a deer head.

In 1910 sculptor Charles Robinson Sykes designed a bonnet ornament for his friends Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, he chose the British actress and model, Eleanor Velasco Thornton as his model. This figurine had her forefinger placed against her lips, to symbolise the secret of their love affair. The figurine was fittingly called The Whisper.
A year later a modified version of The Whisper would become officially listed as an optional extra, from the early 1920s onwards it would be fitted on every new Rolls Royce. There were several versions of the Spirit of Ecstacy, they made them with nickel, silver, chrome and at additional cost you could even get a golden version.
Eleanor Thornton died on the 30th of December 1915 after the ship she was on, the SS Persia was torpedoed.

In the early 1930s Sykes was asked to design a lower version of the mascot to use on their new sports saloons, a lower version would provide better visibility for the driver. He achieved this by designing the so called Kneeling Lady. In 1956 this version would be discontinued in favour of a smaller version of the original Spirit of Ecstasy. The Phantom IV would be the last Rolls Royce to carry this mascot.

Modern version
The modern version of the Spirit of Ecstasy is exactly three inches tall and is mounted on top of a spring-load mechanism which will retract the ornament into the radiator shell as soon as it gets touched, to prevent it from getting stolen.
It’s made out of the same materials as in the early days, with the addition of a stainless steel and frosted crystal version. There are a couple customised aftermarket versions available, like a matte black one and one that’s studded in diamonds.

So that’s all for now, thank you for reading and have a nice day :)

Marijn M.

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