This weekend, Silverstone Auctions have another royal vehicle in their sale – Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 Land Rover Series 1. The most recent Royal car sold by Silverstone Auctions was Princess Diana’s black Ford Escort RS Turbo which made a world record price of £730,000.
This royal 4×4 was built in late 1953 and registered on the Royal number sequence NXN 1 in early 1954, the 11th example from that year. It comes to the auction in immaculate condition and the special Land Rover has a production chassis number but is considered a pre-production build.
Dispatched to Stratstone London on 3rd July 1953, the newly proclaimed Queen had the Land Rover shipped to her beloved Balmoral Estate. NXN 1 was exclusively used by Their Majesties Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, with HRH Prince Phillip, The Duke of Edinburgh and The Duke of Rothesay (Prince Charles) until 1966 when it was purchased and re-registered LXC 894D by the vendor in neighbouring Ballater.
Rob Hubbard Sales Director of Silverstone Auctions, comments: “It’s not often that a vehicle with such impressive royal provenance like this is offered publicly for sale. Its special features and royal connections make it exceptionally interesting. This Land Rover would doubtless have been used extensively on the Balmoral estate where we know the royals loved to picnic. It would have been a familiar and much-loved part of Her Majesty and Prince Philip’s private lives.”
Having been purchased from the Royal estate by the vendor in 1966 the Land Rover was stored in their family garage for a number of years. King Charles III (then the Prince of Wales) is rumoured to have recognised the unique Land Rover and as a gift funded and encouraged it’s exacting restoration.
The illustrious Land Rover was featured on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow also led the Land Rover parade at the Queen’s Jubilee Pageant last year and consequently, with a TV audience measured in billions, it is probably one of the most photographed Land Rovers in the World.
To find out more about the vehicle and others consigned for the Silverstone Auctions sale at Race Retro this weekend, please visit their website.
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