It's not often that a car company - even an upmarket one like Jaguar - pays tribute to the skilled hands and patience of the craftsmen who work in the Special Vehicles trim shop, hand-stitching leather upholstery and polishing veneer trim for limited-edition specials and one-off customer orders.
So it's nice that Jaguar has chosen to call their latest special edition - based on the XK coupé and convertible - the Artisan SE, focused as it is on luxurious materials and hand-finished details.
The tone is set by the use of scraffito grain leather (a special soft finish that feels as good as it looks) on the seats, instrument binnacle, door and rear quarter panels casings, and ultra-thin Poltrona Frau leather for the headlining.
STRAIGHT TO THE TOP SHELF
Those seats, by the way, aren't ordinary XK seats, they're 16-way adjustable - and heated - sports seats from the Performance catalogue, and their upholstery comes in a choice of two special colour schemes: navy blue with a black headlining or brown with a cream headlining.
That's complemented by your choice of either shadow walnut or dark figured aluminium veneer for the trim elements.
The Jaguar artisans went straight to the top shelf for the cabin fittings, including a 525W Bowers & Wilkins sound system, keyless entry and starting, a heatable steering wheel and stainless-steel pedals - finished off with Special Edition sill plates.
The XK Artisan SE comes in celestial black (with a special glittery base-coat used only on this model) white or silver with hand-polished Orona 20” rims and, if your choice is a convertible you can choose from black, blue, grey or brown for the fabric roof.
UK prices start from £77 350 (R947 500) for the coupé and £82 500 (R1 010 600) for the convertible.