My wife, Janice and I started our antiques business in 1990 after many years of collecting, starting at the antique fairs before moving into a premises in Lodsworth. After 2 years there we took the plunge and moved into a larger premises at Swan House in Petworth and over the 18 years gradually took over the remaining adjoining showrooms, making us one of the largest antique showrooms in the country.

With the increase in trade from the web site and the decline in the number of visitors to the showroom we made the decision to move the showroom to a Georgian four storey house in Chichester in August, 2011.

Over the 5 years that we were there, we noticed the continued increase in the web based business and the continued decline in visitors to the showroom. This, combined with Janice’s worsening health, helped us make the decision to move the business into a warehouse environment just outside Chichester and to concentrate all our efforts on the web sites.

Unfortunately, Janice’s health issues resulted in her passing at the end of 2017 and that combined with my increasing age made me re-evaluate the way I am going to work in the future. I am trying to get a better work/life balance and therefore took this opportunity of closing the warehouse and moving the stock into a secure storage facility. I have also opened a very small showroom in Emsworth, Hampshire, allowing me to meet clients who wish to see items from the web site. Emsworth is very close to both Chichester and Portsmouth, so if you are visiting or staying in the area and wish to visit our antiques showroom, please drop me an email.

The showroom also allows me to exhibit a very small selection of items from the web site and should anyone be interested in these, they can contact me by email and I will arrange to meet them there. I will also be working from the showroom at odd times, so please do call in if I am there. I am next to the local wine merchants (purely a coincidence) and am very close to a lovely independent café called Driftwood, where I am always happy to join you for a coffee.

As I shall not be working from one place in the future, I have not included a telephone number as I can not be sure when I would pick up the message, so would ask that you contact me by email for the foreseeable future, as I check these regularly throughout the day.

We are able to offer the discerning collector a vast range of some of the finest antiques available on the market. In addition to a selection of fine furniture and paintings, we also have one of the finest collections of rare tea caddies and boxes currently available in the world, together with one of the best selection of miniature furniture. These together with the largest choice of Staffordshire figures, plus our many other items makes our web site the one place you should visit.

We have proven ourselves to be one of the most innovative and progressive showrooms in the country, as on 25th June 2002 at the prestigious British Antique and Collectables Awards were held at the Dorchester Hotel, London and Richard Gardner Antiques was recognised as the best antique premises in Britain winning the category ‘Best Showroom outside London,’ having been runners up in 2001. The BACA awards have been set up to honour and congratulate the art and antique industries finest. Judged by their peers on both the quality of stock and service these awards are a keenly fought contest.

Things have now progressed further and in early 2023 I decided to close the Emsworth gallery and just concentrate on selling online from my base in Portsmouth. Because of this, I have decided not to continue selling furniture and am in the process of disposing of my remaining stock. But rest assured, I am not going anywhere and will continue to source the finest antique items to offer you, they will just be smaller items that can be posted easier. As I am writing this, I still have over 1000 pieces for sale!

About 4 years ago now, I also branched out into selling photographs and opened Queen Street Photography Gallery selling a selection of modern and vintage photographs, together with a selection of prints and photobooks. I expect to do 2 pop up shops/exhibitions displaying these and hope you check out the website for these works.

If you would like to be kept up to date with what is going on with both websites, then please sign up for my weekly newsletter, the Weekender.

We hope you will enjoy visiting our sites and look forward to seeing you again.

Richard