About us
We are here to help, serve, offer advice, share our expertise, find items, answer your questions, carefully pack and ship your purchases to win your repeat custom.
We do all that from the stunning French Pyrenees, where our business is registered and regulated.
Our Story
We are a proud, family business, and have made it a passion to make our customers the happiest possible, since the 1990s.
More of an update will follow ... when we get the time - we are so very busy excuse this short page!
As a response to the rising global demand for French Art Deco investment pieces, a little ill-health, and to best capitalise on their expertise and skills, what was once a side-business (complementing a specialist renovation company which sold larger pieces locally and smaller pieces internationally to returning clients and through eBay) has now become ‘ChateauAntiques.com’, an online retail and wholesale website offering French antiques for sale.
“We know how hard it is to find honest, detailed descriptions and photos of French antiques, and it’s even harder to find those along with customer service of international standing.
“Prior to this website, we ran a specialist renovation company with clients all over the world, overcoming all manner of language and cultural barriers.
“Dealing mostly with clients outside of France who could not always visit their chateau, effective and honest communication was essential, and played a huge part in our success.
“We address our antique sales in exactly the same way.”
Having spent so much time working in these fine old chateaux, most of them filled with antiques over the centuries, an appreciation and professional understanding of the craftsmanship put into making them was bound to happen.
A love of their beauty and quality naturally followed, working in museum or art gallery-like environments, surrounded by authentic antique pieces from France’s rich history.
Working in many of these ancient and beautiful environments also had another advantage. As buildings are renovated and ownership changes, so do the furnishing needs. And it became clear there was a need for a conduit between these chateau owners and antiques buyers.
A new colour scheme needing a change of light fittings, a bedroom changed into a library, plus entire clearances before or after a building sale – all of these changes need ‘new’ period pieces, and so “Chateau Antiques” became a way of helping this inter-chateaux antiques trade.
“We know how limited the supply of genuine French and European antiques is, and we know how hard it is to find a personal, one-to-one, from-enquiry-to-negotiation-to-packing-to-delivery service in this market.
Over the past 25 years, we have safely transported single boxes and containers full of fragile and unique items to most corners of the globe.”
“There are no middlemen or any agencies involved in what we do.
You deal with one of us, from start to finish.
“We have taken the photos and listed our antiques for sale. We can give you all the information you need, and we guarantee that you’ll be happy because that makes us happy. We choose to run this business because we love the beautiful things we get to handle, and love making our clients happy.”
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Having started his professional life in 1986 in the formerly-industrial north of England, Sean was lucky enough to find work with a growing retail chain that was bucking the trend and becoming a huge success in difficult times, in a difficult area, due to its commitment to excellent customer service.
A few years of travelling were funded by working on building sites and buying and selling local crafts from one place to the next, which led to encountering opportunities in manufacturing and shipping wholesale giftware in places as exotic as Cairo, Delhi and Sheffield.
Sean finally settled in the lush, rolling foothills of the French Pyrenees in 2007, falling in love with the lifestyle, environment, and a neighbour.
When he is not buying and selling antiques, he is listening to jazz, cooking and finding new ways to embarrass the kids.
A few heavy yet enjoyable years of chateau restorations took its toll on his health, and following 18 months of surgery and physiotherapy, ChateauAntiques.com became the perfect, lighter way to blend his years of international customer service experience with his passion for French antiques and being surrounded each day by beautiful things…
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