Lot Essay
THE HILLINGDON COLLECTION
The celebrated Hillingdon Collection was formed by Sir Charles Mills, Bt. (1792-1872), and enlarged by his son, the 1st Lord Hillingdon (1830-1898). The collection of French furniture and works of art, one of the greatest put together in England in the nineteenth century, included the largest single accumulation of Louis XV and Louis XVI porcelain-mounted furniture ever to be assembled. Seventeen of the pieces (together with other furniture and Sèvres porcelain) were sold from the collection in 1936 and are now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (J. Parker et al., Decorative Art from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Aylesbury, 1964, pp. 116-119 et passim).
Sir Charles Mills was a partner in his family's private bank, Glyn, Mill & Co., with his two brothers, who were also passionate collectors of French works of art. In 1825 he married Emily Cox, the daughter of a partner in Cox's Bank. He built a house near his wife's parents at Hillingdon, Middlesex, and in London the Millses lived at Camelford House on the corner of Oxford Street and Park Lane. He was created a baronet in 1868. His son, created 1st Lord Hillingdon in 1886, continued to live at Camelford House but moved from Hillingdon Court to Wildernesse Park, near Sevenoaks
A clock of similar character, acquired from the Hillingdon Collection by Sir Philip Sassoon, was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondely in these Rooms, 8 December 1994, lot 46
The celebrated Hillingdon Collection was formed by Sir Charles Mills, Bt. (1792-1872), and enlarged by his son, the 1st Lord Hillingdon (1830-1898). The collection of French furniture and works of art, one of the greatest put together in England in the nineteenth century, included the largest single accumulation of Louis XV and Louis XVI porcelain-mounted furniture ever to be assembled. Seventeen of the pieces (together with other furniture and Sèvres porcelain) were sold from the collection in 1936 and are now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (J. Parker et al., Decorative Art from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Aylesbury, 1964, pp. 116-119 et passim).
Sir Charles Mills was a partner in his family's private bank, Glyn, Mill & Co., with his two brothers, who were also passionate collectors of French works of art. In 1825 he married Emily Cox, the daughter of a partner in Cox's Bank. He built a house near his wife's parents at Hillingdon, Middlesex, and in London the Millses lived at Camelford House on the corner of Oxford Street and Park Lane. He was created a baronet in 1868. His son, created 1st Lord Hillingdon in 1886, continued to live at Camelford House but moved from Hillingdon Court to Wildernesse Park, near Sevenoaks
A clock of similar character, acquired from the Hillingdon Collection by Sir Philip Sassoon, was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondely in these Rooms, 8 December 1994, lot 46