Manfred Schotten Antiques
A shop of old leather, polished wood and well-made things on Burford's High Street, part museum and part treasure hunt.
A shop of old leather, polished wood and well-made things on Burford's High Street, part museum and part treasure hunt.
We tend to fold Manfred Schotten into a wider morning in Burford rather than a trip in its own right. The drive over from the cottage takes us around twenty-five minutes through the lanes, and the shop sits at 109 High Street, part of the way down Burford's famously steep hill among the honey-coloured stone frontages. Stepping inside feels less like a shop and more like wandering into a very particular collector's private library. Vintage rowing oars lean against the walls, leather cricket bags sit next to brass telescopes and croquet sets, and there is usually a globe or two that has clearly seen some weather. Every shelf and corner seems to hold something, and half the pleasure is simply working out what a given object once was and who might have used it.
The business has been dealing here for more than forty years, well enough known in the field that it also trades as Sport Antiques, and the specialism is sporting and library antiques: things made to be used hard and to age beautifully. The stock shifts constantly, so we have long since given up predicting what will be in from one visit to the next. Prices run the full range, from small curiosities you could tuck under your arm to serious pieces of furniture, and nobody minds in the least if you come only to look. It is genuinely one of the nicest half-hours you can spend in Burford, even on the days we walk out having bought nothing at all, and it is exactly the sort of shop the town does so well.
It is a working shop with fairly traditional hours, generally open through the week and on Saturday mornings and closing over lunch, with some viewings by appointment, so it is worth a quick check of the official site before you set off, particularly on a Sunday or a bank holiday when it is likely to be shut. There is no need to book to browse in ordinary hours; you can simply wander in. Burford's main pay-and-display car parks sit a short stroll away at the top and bottom of the hill, and the High Street is easy to do on foot once you are parked. We usually leave the car once and cover the whole town on foot from there.
We rarely visit in isolation. Schotten pairs naturally with the rest of Burford: the antique and interiors shops that line the hill, the parish church down by the river, and a good lunch or a pint afterwards at The Lamb just off the main street. If you are in a browsing mood for the day, Chastleton House is a lovely National Trust pairing a little further on. For the bigger picture, our things to do and see guide gathers houses, gardens and days out across the area, and the eating and drinking guide covers where to land afterwards.
“I've never managed a quick visit. You go in for five minutes and come out an hour later with something wonderful you can't quite explain to anyone at home.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.