About chinese antique furniture

A diverse range of aesthetically beautiful and well crafted Chinese antique furniture and iconic decorative pieces

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Sharon Fitzsimmons’ experience in Chinese antiques spans over 25 years. With a team of experts she has curated this late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) collection, selecting each piece herself in China.

Her collection criteria encompass authenticity, craftsmanship, design, rarity and functionality, resulting in iconic pieces that enhance the decorative themes of any interior.

With pieces in homes worldwide, Chinese Antique Furniture has earned an enviable reputation for quality of products and customer service.

 

Now more than ever home is where we seek peace, tranquility and regeneration. We look for beauty, meaning and authenticity in home furnishings, beacons of stability and history that intrigue and speak to us. In this context, Chinese accent pieces have always enhanced the interiors of the cognescenti.
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故事

The Story

Sharon was fortunate to grow up in Europe and USA, the family home seamlessly blended Eastern and Western decorative themes, initiating her appreciation of intriguing Chinese furniture, especially a large spell binding antique screen.

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Hong Kong and China

Her interest was piqued further in the 1980’s when, after completing her MBA and working for The White House followed by finance in New York, she moved to Hong Kong. China opened following decades of isolation, and global interest in Chinese antiquities followed, with a new phenomenal awareness of quality antiques that survived the Cultural Revolution’s wholesale destruction of cultural artefacts.

It was a once in a lifetime experience which Sharon was fortunate to witness and learning Mandarin at the time was a great asset.

She chose to leave her corporate career to work with renowned Beatrice Owen of Windsor House Antiques: her passion for discovering, restoring, researching and selling uniquely beautiful antiques took flight and continues today.

She learned the trade from the ground up, working with experts and craftsman in the difficult task of sourcing in China and and restoring in Hong Kong. She then supplied leading dealers in Europe and USA and sold in Hong Kong and internationally.

UK based business launched

After two almost decades in Hong Kong, Sharon and her family relocated to the UK. She established her Chinese Antique Furniture brand in 2007, encompassing pieces mostly from Shanxi Province.

Antique furniture was mostly sourced in before 2012; good timing as the antique market is finite and becoming practically non existent in China.

Sharon and her dedicated team of experts grew the business organically: with antiques in Swiss ski chalets, modernist offices in London, family estates in Yorkshire and Cornwall, a private reserve in East Africa’s Rift Valley, and residences in China, USA and Europe.

Close collaboration with the interior design community has their clients’ showcasing her pieces in a range of interiors.

Also in January 2022 Sharon’s antiques can be seen in Universal Studios international spy thriller “355”, stars include Jessica Chastain and Penelope Cruz.

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Enjoy scrolling through the Collection from our showroom which mixes flamboyance and restraint, quirky and classical, all of which blends into a client’s interior, serving as a unique signifier, original art and functional furniture to be used and cherished for generations.

故事

A wealth of knowledge

Sharon constantly seeks and shares new knowledge. This includes meeting the iconic Shao Fan in Beijing to discuss the philosophy of Song Dynasty furniture, and his Chinese chair sculptures at the V&A; lecturing at the Oxford and Cambridge Club, the Hong Kong Society amongst others; and attending private talks on China’s heritage, such as on the eminent Ennin (C8th) at US Embassy, Beijing. In this Knowledge section she shares how Chinese antique furniture, in the realm of the decorative arts, have a fascinating history and at the same time are wonderfully and uniquely adaptable to modern interiors