John's Rolls Royce

Great information and very nice picture of John's Rolls Royce, one of my favorite cars

During the making of Sergeant Pepper John decided to have the Rolls-Royce painted. Colour and design were of the utmost priority and he employed a firm of barge and caravan designers to do it for him. The idea came to him when he bought an old gypsy caravan for the garden." [/b]-- Cynthia Lennon, from her book, "A Twist of Lennon", page 142.

John had in mind the possibility of having his car painted "psychedelic". After discussing the idea, J.P. Fallon Limited commissioned "The Fool" -- a Dutch team of gypsy artists, to do the work. They designed and painted a pattern of scroll and flowers on the Phantom V. The cost for having the work done came in at £2,000.[/i]

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Love your photo (taken at Goodwood presumably). I have just read with interest your info on the psychedelic Rolls Royce of John Lennon and thought you may be interested in some additional information I have relating to the concept, design and production of its paintwork. I researched the history to establish the provenance of the original design proof that I acquired following the death of my father-in-law.

The inspiration for the design came from Marijke Koger, one of the design collective ‘The Fool’ who were responsible for numerous seminal pieces of the period and were very influential in the psychedelic art movement. Marjke states in an email to me “I was staying at John’s house in 68 [she miss-states the date!] to paint his piano and he had a painted gypsy wagon in is garden. I suggested to him that he paint the Rolls like the gypsy wagon, which he thought was a great idea...”

To realise John’s vision, the artist Steve Weaver was commissioned to create a design for John. He clearly liked Weavers' design, as this was then painted on John's Rolls Royce by Weaver at the JP Falon, Coachbuilders works. Weaver was paid £290 for his artwork.

Steve Weaver is now deceased so he can't tell his own story. However his daughter remembers the time and she confirmed that the design painting I have is the original that was prepared for Lennon by her father. Weaver's daughter was interested in my father-in-law's connection to her father, and revealed that he “had a younger man help him with the car”. It is quite possible that this was my father-in-law, also an artist who was working in the area at that time.

I hold supporting documents in the form of; a signed authentication by the artist’s daughter: a photograpic copy of Weaver’s £290 invoice for work and materials dated May 24th 1967; a photographic copy of an application to the Patent Office to register the design, dated 19th June 1967 signed by the artist; an email from Marijke Koger commenting on the origins of the work.

I'll attach a clickable thumbnail (not done this before!) of the design board for your interest - you'll see how close the final work was to the original concept.

Another go at adding that image of the original design artwork. It measures 2ft x 3ft and is in 'as found' condition as you can see (I hope!).