Marhamchurch Antiques is one of the UK’s leading early oak specialists based in Devon, England. Founded by Paul Fitzsimmons in 1991.


Paul Fitzsimmons
The man behind the antiques

We deal in rare and interesting English and Continental early furniture and works of art, including metalware and paintings, from the early Tudor period through to the end of the 17th century. We are members of LAPADA and CINOA.

Many rare and important items have been handled, documented and sold to private collections and museums worldwide over the last 30 years. We furnish small cottages through to mansions, and help to create wonderful rooms for our clients.

One of our areas of speciality is furniture and woodwork from Exeter, dating to the 16th and 17th centuries

We ship items worldwide and are happy to arrange this too.

AN APPRECIATION

“To stoke the fires of passion for the Gothic and the Renaissance” was the message I wrote on the flyleaf of Monica Burckhardt’s Mobiler Moyen Age, Renaissance, a gift to the young Paul Fitzsimmons in early 1997

Paul was then dividing his time between restoring and dealing in early furniture, an interest inspired by his late father who was also an antiques dealer. Since then we have remained close friends and I have watched Paul set aside his restoration work to blaze a meteoric trail as a dealer in furniture and woodcarvings from the mediaeval period to the late 17th century. He has the nose of a bloodhound for tracking down previously unrecorded furniture and the tenacity of a Jack Russell for locating lost and forgotten items from famous collections long dispersed.

I keep a keen eye on his gallery and am perpetually amazed by the richness of the treasures he offers for sale, and if the little book I gave him so long ago played any part in kindling those fires of passion for his metier that burn so strongly within him, then I am not only content but also rather proud.

Paul Lewis, composer, mediaevalist and collector, 21/2/21.