Manfred Schotten Antiques, Burford
A Bavarian antiques hunter fell for the Cotswolds in the 1970s, and built Britain’s foremost sporting antiques shop on Burford High Street.
Manfred Schotten Antiques has traded for more than forty years from Burford, the medieval town often called the gateway to the Cotswolds. Manfred, originally from Bavaria, first came to England in the early 1970s to buy antique furniture for his brother’s shop back in Germany, and found the Cotswolds such fertile hunting ground for continental and overseas dealers that he and his wife decided to settle here, initially in a workshop near Stow-on-the-Wold before moving to their present Burford premises in 1979.
From General Antiques to Sporting Specialists
As a keen golfer, Manfred developed a natural eye for antiques relating to sport, selling early finds on London’s Portobello Road alongside the shop’s general stock. Over time, sporting items came to dominate entirely, and the shop’s reputation grew to the point of attracting buyers from the fashion industry, including Ralph Lauren and Hennes & Mauritz, drawn by its authentic sporting artefacts, equestrian artwork, taxidermy, and club, leather and library furniture.
Britain’s Premier Sporting Antiques Dealer
Today, Manfred Schotten Antiques is widely regarded as Britain’s leading dealer in this genre and one of the country’s foremost authorities on English sporting antiques — golf, tennis, cricket and beyond — with a more recent sideline in classic and vintage motorcycles, reflecting another of Manfred’s own passions.
Planning Your Visit
Manfred Schotten Antiques is on the High Street in Burford, Oxfordshire, OX18 4RG.
Our guide to Burford, a browse of the town’s other independent shops and galleries.
Where to Stay Nearby
Burford’s central position puts it within easy reach of several of our north Cotswolds properties. For a fuller sense of what is available nearby, our full portfolio of Cotswold properties can be filtered by location.
However you choose to base yourselves, our concierge team can help arrange a private viewing or sourcing visit at Manfred Schotten Antiques.
In Short
Manfred Schotten Antiques turned one collector’s passion for sport into Britain’s leading specialist in the field — a genuinely distinctive stop on Burford’s High Street for anyone with an interest in sporting history.