figure of a seated violin player, 1700-1715, attributed to Lambertus van Eenhoorn, De Metaale Pot - 24,8 cm. High
Estimate: 10,000–15,000

With a remarkably rich and rewarding life, Dr. Anton Philips (1874-1951) has rightly earned a place in the collective memory of the Dutch people. His vigour and entrepreneurial spirit transformed a family owned light-bulb-producing company into a global business, providing employment for tens of thousands of people throughout Holland and abroad.

An Iznik pottery dish, Circa 1570, Ottoman Turkey, 31 cm. diam.
Estimate: €30,000-40,000

Anton Philips ranked amongst the foremost entrepreneurs of the 20th century. Trained as a banker in Amsterdam and London, at the age of twenty he joined the small company his brother Gerard and his father Frederik had founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Anton was responsible for the commercial side of the enterprise and built a network of industrial customers in western Europe.

Anton travelled to Russia at the turn of the century. While his extensive travels to the Americas, South Africa, Australia and the Far East proved far more fruitful, a Russian anecdote serves as a perfect example for both his perseverance and creativity.

A large Netherlandish mortar, Circa 1532
Estimate: €6,000-8,000

In 1922, two decades after his first visit to Moscow, Anton tried to win over Lenin himself by presenting him with a framed picture of his elderly home in the Dutch town of Zaltbommel. In the accompanying note Anton pointed out that Karl Marx, his great-uncle from paternal side, had completed several chapters of Das Kapital enjoying the hospitality of the Philips family. Vladimir Iljitsj declined, saying that the nephew had apparently either not read or understood his uncle's writings.

Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam) Christ Healing the Sick: 'The Hundred Guilder Print', Circa 1649
Estimate: €30,000-50,000

Indeed, Anton Philips had by now grown the small family enterprise into a 5,000-employee multinational listed on the international stock exchange, and was a wealthy man.

With the rise of the company, the city of Eindhoven expanded from a population of 45,000 to 100,000 between 1920 and 1930. Anton Philips was as devoted a benefactor as he was a businessman and he provided for housing, developing areas still know as the 'Philips districts', as well as building a school, a city park and the Philips Sport Vereniging whose football team, PSV Eindhoven, had won the European Cup in 1988.

A polychrome carved wood relief of Christ on the way to Golgotha, North French or Flemish, late 15th century, 118 cm high
Estimate: €8,000-12,000

By 1933, Philips had become the worlds' largest producer of radios and, in the years that followed, provided tens of millions of private consumers with television, as well as home grown inventions including the Philishave, the halogen light, the compact cassette and the compact disk.

A parcel-gilt and enamel rectangular bookcover, Limoges, circa 1200, 20,8 x 11,9 cm.
Estimate: €100,000-150,000

In 1951, Anton passed away at the age of 77 and over 80,000 people paid tribute to the tycoon as his funeral procession passed through the town. Today, everyone entering Eindhoven from its main railway station is still welcomed by the large statue of the man who made Eindhoven into 'the city of light'.

A carved ivory group of the virgin and child, Paris, first third 14th century, Circa 12 cm. high
Estimate: €40,000-60,000

It was with the same passion and energy of an entrepreneur that Anton Philips went on to build one of the finest private collections of art ever to appear in Holland. He started early. Still in his twenties, he already owned works by Breitner, Van Gogh and Willem Maris. He rapidly became known as a regular at auctions, galleries and museums around the world, comparing his own judgements to those of eminent art historians such as Abraham Bredius, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Mauritshuis director Wilhelm Martin and prominent art dealer Jacques Goudstikker.

By the 1930s, Anton Philips had assembled one of the most important private collections in the Netherlands. He loaned paintings to state exhibitions in London and Paris and donated a Frans Hals to the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. An active member on its board, he gave 25,000 guilders to the Vereniging Rembrandt.

Cornelis Troost (Amsterdam 1696-1750), Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, in a red coat over a grey waistcoat and white jabot, holding a letter, oil on canvas, 75,5 x 68,5 cm.
Estimate: €8,000-12,000

In 1939, with the Second World War looming, Anton sent sixty numbered containers filled with paintings to the depot of the Dutch Trade Agency in The Hague. A second shipment containing various works of decorative arts was stored in the Amsterdam Museum of Asian Art. Both hideaways escaped the attention of the Nazi's and his collection survived the war almost unscathed.

The insurance valuation of paintings in his house, Villa De Laak in Eindhoven, drawn up by the noted art historian Frits Lugt in 1928, showed a comprehensive representation of major 17th century Dutch paintings by artists like Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Adriaen van Ostade, Aelbert Cuyp, Frans Hals, Jan van Goyen and Jan van de Capelle.

A Dutch silver bread-basket, Mark of Reynier Brandt, Amsterdam, 1767, 32 cm. wide
Estimate €20,000-30,000

From 21 January to 8 February 1937, the Stedelijk van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven hosted the exhibition Van eenige schilderijen en kunstvoorwerpen uit de Collectie van den Heer en Mevrouw Dr. A.F. Philips- de Jongh.

By then, the Collection had grown extensively, now also comprising a number of 14th to 17th Century works by Italian, French, English, German and Flemish artists such as Bellini, Clouet, Hilliard, Cranach, Holbein, Van Dyck, Brueghel and Teniers.

An extensive assembled Meissen ornithological dinner service, 1750-1790, various blue crossed swords marks
Estimate: €50,000-70,000

Among the highlights: Peter Paul Rubens' oil sketch Two studies of a young man, painted between 1615 and 1617. The oil sketch was rediscovered in 1934 when Mr Douglas Lewis of Merton Park, near Wimbledon, brought it to Christie's having acquired the work in a box of paintings at a local West Country auction. The picture was recognised as a Rubens and was offered at Christie's on 23 November 1934 where it sold for £1,560. It was acquired soon afterwards by Anton Philips who displayed it as a central work of his private collection.

Anton, however, did not limit his views to Old Masters alone - the 1937 exhibition catalogue also lists works by 19th and 20th century artists including Anton Mauve, Jozef Israels, Jacob Maris, J.H. Weissenbruch, Marius Bauer, Jan Toorop and Vincent van Gogh.

Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli (French, 1824-1886), A young family under trees on a hill, oil on canvas, 82 x 65 cm.
Estimate: €40,000-60,000

Among Anton's favourite artists was George Hendrik Breitner, whose View on the Keizersgracht and Reguliersgracht he acquired in 1916, some twenty years after it had been painted. Like fellow Eindhoven entrepreneur and collector Henri van Abbe, Anton Philips also owned works by then contemporary artists Jan Sluijters and Kees van Dongen.

An archaic bronze ceremonial wine vessel, fou - Eastern Zhou dynasty, 29, 7 cm. high
Estimate: €8,000-12,000

Following the fashion of the time, the collection also comprised pewter, bronze and brass objects in many forms, from carefully crafted 16th century silver pieces to the works of contemporary silver smith Frans Zwollo. Also featured was Dutch Delftware, 17th and 18th Century Chinese and Japanese porcelain, Han and Tang figures, small 18th and 19th century gold snuff boxes, 15th and 16th century oak furniture, and elegant and signed pieces from 18th century France.

Anton Philips left behind a company synonymous with quality and celebrated for the values it nurtured. The same emphasis on quality and moral beauty characterises his collection of paintings, antiques and works of art.

A Chinese verte-imari armorial ' province' shaving basin, c. 1720, 27 cm. diam.
Estimate: €12,000-18,000

Christie's Amsterdam. 6 November 2007, 10:30 am & 2:00 pm. Cornelis Schuytstraat 57, Amsterdam

Specialists :
Furniture, Clocks, Sculpture & Works of Art : Christiaan van Rechteren Limpurg - cvanrechteren@christies.com - Tel: +31 (0)20 575 59 63

Old Master Pictures : Damien Brenninkmeyer - dbrenninkmeyer@christies.com - Tel: +31 (0)20 575 59 84

Silver & Objects of Vertu : Herman Meulendijks - hmeulendijks@christies.com - Tel: +31 (0)20 575 52 17

19th Century European Art :  Sarah de Clercq - sdeclercq@christies.com - Tel: +31 (0)20 575 52 81

Asian Ceramics & Works of Art : Lela de Vos van Steenwijk - ldevos@christies.com - Tel: +31 (0)20 575 52 05

Twentieth Century Art : Arno Verkade - averkade@christies.com - Tel: +31 (0)20 575 52 82

20th Century Decorative Arts : Marcel Brouwer - mbrouwer@christies.com - Tel: +31 (0)20 575 52 67