Lot Essay
Joseph Coteau, the celebrated émailleur, maître in 1778 and employed at the Sèvres factory 1780-1784
Robert Robin, horloger de la Reine from 1786, became maître in 1767
ROBERT ROBIN (1742-1799)
Following a 'bourgeois' upbringing in the rue Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris, Robert Robin was appointed horloger privilégié du Roy suivant la cour before reaching his majority. He married Marguerite Rose Thelliot in 1765 and received his maîtrise on the 28 November 1767
Horloger du duc de Chartres in 1777, valet de chambre-horloger du Roy in 1781, horloger du comte d'Artois in 1785 and de la Reine in 1786, Robert Robin became the established fournisseur de la Cour de France. Based in the galleries du Louvre until his death in 1789, amongst his creditors appeared the painter Vernet and the sculptor Pajou
JOSEPH COTEAU (1740-1801)
Originally from Geneva, Joseph Coteau claimed that he had found a method d'appliquer solidement l'or marié avec les émaux de toutes couleurs sur la porcelaine, and by 1780 his name first appears in the kiln records at Sèvres
As R. Savill discusses in The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, III, p. 972-4, however, the process of jewelled enamelling for soft and hard paste porcelain was introduced at Sèvres as early as 1778 by Parpette. The goût for enamelled Sèvres was, however, shortlived, virtually disappearing by 1786
Coteau was appointed 'Peintre-émailleur du roi et de la Manufacture Royale de Sèvres circa 1780, and by 1784 his production was considerable, receiving 4520 livres from the Manufacture de Sèvres for executed commissions
PENDULE DE VOYAGE OR DE CAMPAGNE
This clock is extremely closely related to that, also by Robin, in the Jones Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (illustrated in P. Verlet, op. cit. fig. 43) Still retaining its gilt-tooled leather travelling case emblazoned with the Royal Arms of France, as Verlet remarks, this clock was almost certainly commissioned by Louis XVI for the Palais des Tuileries
On the death of Robert Robin, horloger du roi, in 1789, the inventories of his stock records:-
'un lot comprenant un modèle des petites boetes de pendules de campagnes'
and these cases were almost certainly executed by either the fondeur Etienne-Jean Forestier (maître in 1764) or one of the ciseleurs-doreurs Jean-Pierre Feuchère (maître in 1767) or Pierre-Philippe Thomire (maître in 1772), who were employed by Robin circa 1783
Of the small group of related clocks, one, similarly signed and dated 'Coteau 1783', is in the Time Museum, Rockford, Illinois; another, with pearled garlands is illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Francaise, Paris, n.d., 2ème partie, p. 303; another, embellished with rock-crystal columns, from the collection of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, was sold by the comtesse d'Aubigny in these Rooms, 1 July 1976, lot 84; and a final example was sold from the collection of M. Henri Didier, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11 June 1868
Robin's difficult temperament, however, was not conducive to a satisfactory relationship with Sèvres, and in 1784 it was described as an 'affaire terminée'. Establishing himself as an indépendent, he continued to buy undecorated Sèvres porcelain which he enriched in his atelier
The technique of jewelled enamelling was particularly favoured by Louis XVI for diplomatic gifts, including four cups and saucers for the comte and comtesse du Nord at 360 livres each in 1782, and the écuelle and jug and basin presented to Tipu Sultan at 600 and 1,200 livres respectively in 1788
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 procelain-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, Mills & 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 Mills 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.
Robert Robin, horloger de la Reine from 1786, became maître in 1767
ROBERT ROBIN (1742-1799)
Following a 'bourgeois' upbringing in the rue Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris, Robert Robin was appointed horloger privilégié du Roy suivant la cour before reaching his majority. He married Marguerite Rose Thelliot in 1765 and received his maîtrise on the 28 November 1767
Horloger du duc de Chartres in 1777, valet de chambre-horloger du Roy in 1781, horloger du comte d'Artois in 1785 and de la Reine in 1786, Robert Robin became the established fournisseur de la Cour de France. Based in the galleries du Louvre until his death in 1789, amongst his creditors appeared the painter Vernet and the sculptor Pajou
JOSEPH COTEAU (1740-1801)
Originally from Geneva, Joseph Coteau claimed that he had found a method d'appliquer solidement l'or marié avec les émaux de toutes couleurs sur la porcelaine, and by 1780 his name first appears in the kiln records at Sèvres
As R. Savill discusses in The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, III, p. 972-4, however, the process of jewelled enamelling for soft and hard paste porcelain was introduced at Sèvres as early as 1778 by Parpette. The goût for enamelled Sèvres was, however, shortlived, virtually disappearing by 1786
Coteau was appointed 'Peintre-émailleur du roi et de la Manufacture Royale de Sèvres circa 1780, and by 1784 his production was considerable, receiving 4520 livres from the Manufacture de Sèvres for executed commissions
PENDULE DE VOYAGE OR DE CAMPAGNE
This clock is extremely closely related to that, also by Robin, in the Jones Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (illustrated in P. Verlet, op. cit. fig. 43) Still retaining its gilt-tooled leather travelling case emblazoned with the Royal Arms of France, as Verlet remarks, this clock was almost certainly commissioned by Louis XVI for the Palais des Tuileries
On the death of Robert Robin, horloger du roi, in 1789, the inventories of his stock records:-
'un lot comprenant un modèle des petites boetes de pendules de campagnes'
and these cases were almost certainly executed by either the fondeur Etienne-Jean Forestier (maître in 1764) or one of the ciseleurs-doreurs Jean-Pierre Feuchère (maître in 1767) or Pierre-Philippe Thomire (maître in 1772), who were employed by Robin circa 1783
Of the small group of related clocks, one, similarly signed and dated 'Coteau 1783', is in the Time Museum, Rockford, Illinois; another, with pearled garlands is illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Francaise, Paris, n.d., 2ème partie, p. 303; another, embellished with rock-crystal columns, from the collection of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, was sold by the comtesse d'Aubigny in these Rooms, 1 July 1976, lot 84; and a final example was sold from the collection of M. Henri Didier, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11 June 1868
Robin's difficult temperament, however, was not conducive to a satisfactory relationship with Sèvres, and in 1784 it was described as an 'affaire terminée'. Establishing himself as an indépendent, he continued to buy undecorated Sèvres porcelain which he enriched in his atelier
The technique of jewelled enamelling was particularly favoured by Louis XVI for diplomatic gifts, including four cups and saucers for the comte and comtesse du Nord at 360 livres each in 1782, and the écuelle and jug and basin presented to Tipu Sultan at 600 and 1,200 livres respectively in 1788
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 procelain-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, Mills & 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 Mills 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.