Automotive

Rolls-Royce stool is THE gift for "get off my lawner" who has it all

Rolls-Royce stool is THE gift for "get off my lawner" who has it all
Embossed leather held taut on an aluminum frame, standing atop a carbon fiber adjustable leg
Embossed leather held taut on an aluminum frame, standing atop a carbon fiber adjustable leg
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The spike looks like a proper weapon but is really designed to provide some stability on soft ground
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The spike looks like a proper weapon but is really designed to provide some stability on soft ground
It looks like it could work as a cane, but the Pursuit Seat is designed to travel in a carry case between sits
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It looks like it could work as a cane, but the Pursuit Seat is designed to travel in a carry case between sits
The leather seat cushion folds away for transport
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The leather seat cushion folds away for transport
Buy the Pursuit Seat as a single or a pair and fit it neatly in the Cullinan Recreation Module
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Buy the Pursuit Seat as a single or a pair and fit it neatly in the Cullinan Recreation Module
Embossed leather held taut on an aluminum frame, standing atop a carbon fiber adjustable leg
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Embossed leather held taut on an aluminum frame, standing atop a carbon fiber adjustable leg
You can see the flashlight tucked neatly below the seat cushion
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You can see the flashlight tucked neatly below the seat cushion
A flashlight for nighttime sits
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A flashlight for nighttime sits
For 9 grand, it had better adjust to the right height
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For 9 grand, it had better adjust to the right height
The Pursuit Seat is the latest member of Rolls-Royce's Bespoke collection, available through select dealers and via the company's online Boutique
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The Pursuit Seat is the latest member of Rolls-Royce's Bespoke collection, available through select dealers and via the company's online Boutique
View gallery - 9 images

Fretting over buying a gift for that cranky, hyper-posh jerk on your list who has it all but will nonetheless berate you for coming up short during Secret Santa? Fret no more because this is your year. Just in time for the holiday season inside the world's most expensive zip codes, Rolls-Royce launches the new "Pursuit Seat," something of a basic, portable lean-stool like you could buy for around $100, only unconscionably jacked up to nearly $9,000. Happy holidays!

What good is having a database overflowing with "high-net worth individuals" if you can't mine it to pitch marginally useful, ridiculously overpriced lifestyle goods that no one of sane mind and modest bank account would ever buy for a fraction the price? That seems to be why there's such a thing as the Rolls-Royce Bespoke division and Rolls-Royce Boutique, and it's certainly a factor in how the new Pursuit Seat came to be.

Rolls-Royce Bespoke designer Matthew Danton puts a more polished spin on the strategy: "We look to create accessories that enhance our clients' lifestyles. Like every Bespoke commission, each detail of the Pursuit Seat has been minutely considered and meticulously designed, then handcrafted using the very finest materials."

You can see the flashlight tucked neatly below the seat cushion
You can see the flashlight tucked neatly below the seat cushion

"Seat" seems a bit of an overstatement for a swatch of leather stretched across a collapsible aluminum frame atop a single, height-adjustable leg made largely from fibers of carbon (sounds more Rolls-Roycey that way). Best case scenario, one will be able to rest all their weight on it for a few seconds while straddling it like a horse saddle – more often, they'll find themselves resting weight and maintaining balance with the legs while "flying a drone, painting a landscape or simply pausing to take in the view," as Rolls envisions.

The spike looks like a proper weapon but is really designed to provide some stability on soft ground
The spike looks like a proper weapon but is really designed to provide some stability on soft ground

It doesn't benefit from the stability of three or four legs, but the Pursuit Seat relies on a flared aluminum ferrule at its leg base to serve as a more stable foundation on hard surfaces. When the ground is softer, a deployable spike pops out and digs in. And when that fancy spike isn't gouging someone else's lawn, it can protect the Pursuit owner's. Should wayward neighborhood youths so much as cast a peripheral glance at his front yard, and not be adequately deterred by the mere waving of the cane-like Pursuit and yelling of obscenities, a quick flash of that spike should send them scurrying off instantly.

As if all that isn't a bargain at twice the price, the Pursuit Seat is even something of a multitool. A concealed flashlight remains readily accessible in the crease of the hinge, meant to illuminate one's path back to the Cullinan or Phantom when landscape-brushing or drone-piloting runs past sundown.

A flashlight for nighttime sits
A flashlight for nighttime sits

Back at the car, the packed Pursuit Seat fits like a glove inside the slide-out Recreation Module available for the Cullinan's tailgate. And those who don't have Cullinans? Well, they'll surely want to add one to their RR collections and escape the embarrassing fate of driving around with their fancy stick-seats just laying out there on the load floor for all to see.

Buy the Pursuit Seat as a single or a pair and fit it neatly in the Cullinan Recreation Module
Buy the Pursuit Seat as a single or a pair and fit it neatly in the Cullinan Recreation Module

It's not that we're not impressed by Rolls-Royce's dedication to "post opulence" here, but £6,581 (before tax, approx. US$8,800) just seems an awful lot for an awkward, uncomfortable porta-stool. You could buy an exceptionally nice portable chair and hire a butler to carry it and set it up for you for far less. Or, cut out the middle man and pay to sit atop the crouched butler.

Source: Rolls-Royce

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4 comments
4 comments
paul314
If it really is bespoke, then some owner with more money than sense convinced the company to engineer one from scratch, in which case that might be a low price for making a one-off.
MichaelStevensonc2504af27a7c4b68
My grandfather liked his sit-sticks, and you certainly don't straddle them! That would be a particularly uncomfortable way to use one!
buzzclick
Sorry C C. I couldn't help myself after reading your tongue-in-cheek blurb. Is there an off-road RR SUV? If so, their department of exclusive luxury products catering to their valued customers can design a $15,000 Rolls Royce Porta-Potty for when they find themselves far from any toilet facility and god forbid, have to consider taking a dump in the woods. They could call it the Rolls EZ Crapper.
BlueOak
Word has it, there’s already a pretty good copy of it available on Amazon. US$19 without flashlight, US$23 with.

BTW, one wonders, since the Cullinan has a spot for two of them, is there a price-break for buying them in pairs? I know, I know, if you have to ask...