Stories about a special Rolls-Royce
There are probably exciting stories to tell about almost every Rolls-Royce, but some of the cars simply appeared a little more frequently in world events than others.
This is certainly the case with the car that was delivered to Park Ward on December 12, 1947 with chassis number WZB29, where it was given a stately limousine body. The first owner, Baron Louise-Marie-Charles-Adophe Vanderheiden, received the Silver Wraith on June 17, 1948. The Baron remained loyal to the Rolls until his death on February 21, 1952, when the car went to the Hungarian-born Emery Reves. From May 1955, Reves drove the Silver Wraith with Geneva license plates (GE 50941) around half of Europe.
The Rolls was serviced in Geneva, but the car spent a lot of time in Monaco, where Reves and his wife Wendy lived in a villa built in the mountains. The drive through the steep and narrow mountain road was a challenge for both driver and car.
Among the many guests welcomed by the Reves couple were Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, General de Gaulle, Konrad Adenauer, Somerset Maugham, Aristotle Onassis, as well as Greta Garbo, Errol Flynn and Clark Gable, but above all Winston Churchill, who lived on the French Riviera for around seven years, mostly looked after by Emery Reves and his wife.
However, the Reves couple also enjoyed staying in Gstaad, usually at the Palace, which they often preferred to their own villa in Montreux. As a result, the Silver Wraith with the Geneva license plate was often seen in the Bernese Oberland. Wendy Reves had Alex Zwahlen, who owned several boutiques, dress and look after her, demanding as she was.
Zwahlen remembers a trip together in a Rolls-Royce in which Wendy Reves' clothes got so unfortunately caught in the seat linkage that neither the seat could be moved nor the woman could get out. They laughed a lot back then, Zwahlen recalls.
The Rolls-Royce was always stored in a wooden shed at the Palace, as today's parking garage did not yet exist.
Because the Reves couple didn't like flying, the Rolls usually served as appropriate transportation. And when Onassis invited them to Greece, they covered the swimming pool of his yacht in order to organize a parking space for the Rolls for the crossing.
When Emery Reves died, his wife did not have the heart to sell the car. She kept it and parked it in the garage of the "L'Ermitage" chalet above Montreux, even though she now found it more comfortable to drive in a Mercedes-Benz Estate. The car was finally deregistered in October 1980. The Silver Wraith only reappeared in 2014 and, as it was in a sad state, was subsequently completely restored at considerable expense.
Today, the Park Ward Saloon shines again in the same splendor as when Emery and Wendy Reves chauffeured Winston Churchill around in it. And on December 29, 2023, you can buy it at the Gstaad auction ( estimated value CHF 105,000 to 115,000).
A comprehensive story about Emery Reves' Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith can be found in the current issue of Swiss Classics Revue.
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