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Mills, Charles & Co. (1876-1891)

Mills, Charles & Co.

Bradford, Yorkshire; cabinet makers (fl.1876-91)

Listed at 45 Market Street in The Furniture Gazette Directory (1876 & 1877) and The Furniture Gazette: Classified List of the Furniture, Upholstery, and Allied Trades (1886).  In 1880-4 the firm was also recorded with the addresses of Ben Rydding, near Ikley and Leeds Road & Palmerston Buildings, Cheapside, Bradford.

C. Mills was the maker of the furniture for the New Liberal Club House, Bradford, in 1877 and walnut fittings and furniture for the new restaurant and reading room at the Boar’s Head, Bradford, in 1885 (The Furniture Gazette, 7 July 1877 & 1 January 1886 respectively). 

The firm exhibited two oak sideboards, a rosewood mantel with over mantel and other furniture at the Yorkshire Fine Arts Society Show, Leeds, 1881 [The Furniture Gazette, 5 March 1881].  Its display at the Industrial & Fine Art Exhibition, Bradford Technical School, 1882, included a bedroom suite of wainscot oak, with purple wood mouldings, the panels of figured ebony and carvings of cedar, design modern Queen Anne. Also a Tudor bedstead, drawing room and Jacobean oak dining room furniture, a satinwood Renaissance cabinet with purple wood, ebony reliefs and marquetry panels, designed by A. Lorimer, and an ensuite table and chairs. They won a gold medal at the Exhibition [The Furniture Gazette, 22 July & 23 December 1882].  

In 1884 a Court Order was made to place the bankrupt business in the hands of a receiver but an order for discharge from bankruptcy was granted on 2 May 1884. A dividend of 1s 6d was paid followed by another dividend of 2s and a final dividend of 1s 6d at the end of 1885 [The Furniture Gazette, 29 March 1884, 14 June, 16 August & 1 December 1885 & 31 January 1886]. 

The Furniture Gazette, 15 February 1891, recorded the bankruptcy of C. Mills & Co., 4 Leeds Road, Hammerton Street & Trafalgar Street, Bradford.