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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 19th century, included the largest single accumulation of Louis XV and Louis XVI porcelain-mounted furniture ever to be assembled. Seventeen of the pieces 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 and he went to build a house near his wife's parents at Hillingdon, Middlesex (created a baronet in 1868, the Mills continued to live at Camelford House, London on the corner of Oxford street and Park Lane) but moved from Hillingdon Court to Wildernesse Park, near Sevenoaks.
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 19th century, included the largest single accumulation of Louis XV and Louis XVI porcelain-mounted furniture ever to be assembled. Seventeen of the pieces 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 and he went to build a house near his wife's parents at Hillingdon, Middlesex (created a baronet in 1868, the Mills continued to live at Camelford House, London on the corner of Oxford street and Park Lane) but moved from Hillingdon Court to Wildernesse Park, near Sevenoaks.