Originally owned by Lady Lucy Markham, the wife of colliery owner Sir Henry Markham of Blatchborough Park, Shorncliffe, Kent, this magnificent Renault carries limousine coachwork by one of France’s most distinguished and longest-lived carrossiers, Kellner, founded in 1860 by harness maker Georges Kellner and in business until the outbreak of the Second World War. The glazed sidescreens to the driver’s compartment are particularly handsome.

Recalled another master coachbuilder, Jean Henri-Labourdette, whose premises adjoined the Kellner workshops in the Avenue de Malakoff, “Kellner coachwork was always executed in an impeccable fashion and their design, of classic inspiration, was elegant in its sobriety.” According to George Milligen, Sir Henry declared that he had ordered the Renault at the December 1911 Paris Salon. It was first registered in Kent on 11 September 1912, the delay in delivery presumably due to the length of time it took to build a bespoke body of the finest quality.
Appropriately, this stately Renault was a car that carried the highest in the land: George Milligen’s notes record that its passengers included the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) and Prime Minister Lloyd George. It was discovered in 1950 by the well-known Rolls-Royce historian Wilton J.Oldham in Oliver’s Garage at Hawkhurst, Kent, and subsequent owners included the well-known veteran car collector Norman Cole. After Cole’s death in 1982, the Renault passed to his daughter Mary Kendall-Torry (Collings).

Attracted by the quality of the coachwork, George Milligen purchased the car in October 1984 from another well-known collector, Harry Smith. Produced between 1910-12, the Type CE had a four-cylinder engine of 5,026cc, and developed some 22 bhp at 1,200 rpm. With Renault’s trademark coalscuttle bonnet and dashboard radiator, this is a top class Edwardian car that would enhance any collection and grace any major concours.