Bentley Creates Kingly Cushions for Charles and Camilla
Only Bentley’s finest will do to cosset Great Britain's new King and Queen.
THE DETROIT BUREAU.COM | May 4, 2023
If there is any doubt as to the manufacturing capabilities of what remains of the British car industry, its the presence of the latest limited-edition offering being made in celebration of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
They luxury carmaker’s produced limited-edition pillows, posh leather-clad puffery meant to coddle the royal posterior and lower back.
These coronation cushions are fabricated by Bentley, a company trying desperately to convince the world it’s an international luxury brand rather than merely an automaker. Its name is now plastered on everything from watches and luggage to audio components, furniture and even real estate.
And so, it’s little surprise the company announced Wednesday “a team of Bentley’s craftspeople have worked together to produce a limited series of bespoke cabin cushions for a fleet of Bentleys.”
But is it kosher?
Of course, you might wonder how an automotive brand owned by Germany’s Volkswagen AG could be considered British. But in that regard, it’s not any different than the House of Windsor.
The Windsors royal bloodline stems from King George I, who was crowned in 1714 following the death of his second cousin, Queen Anne of Great Britain. As it turns out, he was previously known as German Elector George Louis of Hanover. But he was Anne’s closest living Protestant relative, a divorced man who, as George I, had two mistresses and could barely speak English.
It wasn’t until his grandson George III was born that the first of Britain’s German kings was born on British soil. By the time of King George V in 1917, the family name was changed to Windsor and all German titles were relinquished. His cousin, Ludwig von Battenberg, also changed the family name to Mountbatten, the name of Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Phillip. As it turns out, they were third cousins, sharing the same great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
King George I, like a modern Bentley, a Brit with German ties.
About those Coronation cushions
So, British coronation cushions with Germanic origins aren’t so suspect. Nevertheless, while the pillows may be meant for a monarch or some member of the House of Windsor, the press release also states that they have been made to enhance the cabins of two Bentayga Exteneded Wheelbase models, two Bentayga Hybrids, and one highly-bespoke Bentley, all crafted to coddle royal posteriors and Blue Blood backs afflicted by a slipped disc or sciatica.
After all, crowns are heavy — not that you could tell given the custom of the British stiff upper lip.
What’s so special?
While the exact role of the Bentleys in the coronation remains vague, what is clear is that these items are made in Crewe, England by Bentley in the company’s “Dream Factory,” according to the press statement.
The puffy pillows’ design come after four versions were proposed during a three day period. Only then was Bentley satisfied that they had crafted the perfect pillow. And while “My Pillow” CEO Mike Lindell might well argue that point, his company doesn’t come close to offering something as regal as this.
Like the leather used in a new Bentley, the pillows’ hides are sourced from Northern Europe, where the finest bulls live in a temperate climate unencumbered by barbed wire fences that might harm those precious hides. Cows are not considered as they have stretch marks.
Each skin is checked for perfection before being marked by hand and trimmed. The 1.4-mm-thick leather is then shaped and stitched into a pillow before being embellished using 30,000 handcrafted stitches to create the kingly coronation logo using two colors of thread. Each cushion is colored to match the interior of the Bentley where they will be used: Cricketball with Beluga piping, Cumbrian Green with Porpoise piping, Imperial Blue with Newmarket Tan piping, and Saddle with Imperial Blue piping. Coronation emblems are sewn using Black, White, Red and Blue thread.
Overall, it requires three hours to produce each one, but the result is a kingly cushion that should please the lord or lady of any manner or manor.
Stately stuff
On an isle where tradition means so much — Camilla’s great-great grandmother Alice Keppel was King Edward VII’s favorite mistress, so family tradition lives on — the coronation of Charles and Camilla comes with a number of long-revered royal ceremonial items.
They include a pair of 10.5-inch-long silver-gilt coronation spoons that have been used for crowning every British sovereign since the 1600s, as well as the Sovereign’s Orb, a golden sphere encrusted with nine emeralds, 18 rubies, nine sapphires, 365 diamonds, and 375 pearls that’s meant to symbolize the world. And while Bentley now markets its own line of furniture, it can’t compare to the Coronation Chair, created upon request of King Edward I, used during the Coronation of Edward II in 1308, and employed ever since.
Of course, there are more items, but you get the idea.
One wonders if car cowhide cushions made by the British subsidiary of a German corporation will join the Imperial pile of regal coronation items. After all, the Bentley pillow designs have heritage as well. They’re modeled after those finite in the 1958 Series One Continental Flying Spur, a true British Bentley built a decade after the King and Queen were born.
Yet given King Charles III’s German-British bloodline, they may be the perfect automotive accoutrement for the House of Windsor.