The Austin Twenty Mayfair was the Coventry firm’s top-of-the-range model in the late 1930s, offering stately luxury at a more attainable price point.

Powered by a 3,425cc six-cylinder side-valve engine driving through a four-speed manual gearbox, it delivered refined, effortless motoring for the professional and aristocratic classes alike.

This elegant limousine, registration DRB 133, is finished in deep blue with a subtle purple hue over black wings, complemented by a blue leather interior with division partition and folding occasional seats.

Originally owned by Robert Rome of Prescot, Merseyside from the 1960s to 1995, the car later joined the collection of Mr Granville Angell, Lord of Cannock, who undertook a painstaking restoration featured in The Automobile in 1998 .

This took 91 weeks (five hours per day, five days per week, by two craftsmen) and included a shot-blasted chassis, handmade silencer, new suspension bushes, new wiring loom, re-cored radiator, new carpets, and ext...