Featured in this auction: French Furniture & Clocks: The Collection of Michael Mitchell. Amassed over three decades this fine collection of 18th- and 19th-century clocks from the San Francisco estate of Michael Mitchell is a feature of Freeman’s October sale of English & Continental Furniture & Decorative Arts. Comprising nearly 40 works, the collection is both impressive in its quality and its quantity. A passionate collector, he beganbuying in the 1980s from local dealers and auction houses in DC where he was attending Georgetown Law School.His father, who was stationed in Germany during WWII, also helped build the collection. They had an affinity for European clocks, in part because of their elaborate cases as exemplified by the Louis XIV boulle-marquetry clocks in the collection. Mr. Mitchell continued to attain pieces after moving to San Francisco, gradually growing the collection to include investment-quality works.
