'Why I'm sold on the North-East'

LEAVING your old life behind and moving to the other side of the world is a difficult thing for anyone to do. Leaving the buzz of New York and a job with the world's most famous auction house for the winding roads of Teesdale might even seem eccentric.

"I had a bit of a midlife crisis," laughs Richard Edwards, senior valuer and auctioneer at Addisons in Barnard Castle, in explanation.

"I've always had a dream of becoming a country auctioneer, something of a James Herriot of auctioneering, touring through the countryside. When I turned 50 I thought it's now or never. So, Anne, my wife, and I gave up our apartment, packed up and came here.

"Yes, Sotheby's is a wonderful company to work for and you see some fantastic things coming through the doors, but at the end of the day, it is a large corporation and I guess, after ten years there, I had just become tired of being a cog in a wheel."

The next step towards fulfilling his dream was to move back to his native Scotland where Richard, 58, grew up and where his parents still live. Through his brother, who went to college with Addisons partner Simon Nixon, Richard heard that there was a vacancy and that they needed someone for their new purpose-built salesroom on the outskirts of Barnard Castle and with credentials like Richard's, Addisons snapped him up without delay.

"Anne and I had never been to the North-East before, but it was a complete revelation for us," recalls Richard, who is a sculpture specialist.

"We came for a visit on a beautiful summer's day and we fell in love with the place, so when I came for the job interview, both Anne and I were very pleased that Simon offered me the job there and then. The funny thing was that Simon has a traditional approach to business and I'm a real city person, who likes to have everything in writing. After the interview and job offer I didn't hear anything: there was complete silence from Simon for two weeks. We were starting to think it was a mirage, but Simon had just thought shaking on it was enough."

This way of doing business has an endearing straightforwardness, which Richard says he finds refreshing after working at big-city Sotheby's.

"Business works differently in this part of the world. Although there is a lot of competition in the world of antiques, people here are also more straightforward. We've never had any problems with credit, as we used to have at Sotheby's where people wouldn't pay invoices for ages. It's an oldfashioned approach which both Anne and I really enjoy."

In his time at Sotheby's, Richard has dealt with a lot of high profile clients, mostly movie stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

"You always had to do a certain amount of dancing around them," he recalls.

But the one celebrity auction which sticks in his mind was the sale of house contents belonging to the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated as Edward VIII, and his wife, the Duchess.

"Sotheby's sold the entire contents of their house. We sold that in New York because of Wallis Simpson's enormous popularity," says Richard.

"When we catalogued their belongings, it seemed to me that the Duke never got over his loss of position because absolutely everything was monogrammed with the initials ER, everything from handkerchiefs to bed sheets - really rather sad. What struck me was that at the same time everything had had to be repaired at some point.

"In this auction, we literally sold everything there was: even rolls of lavatory paper went for thousands of dollars."

But after all this excitement, does Richard miss life in the Big Apple?

"Well," he says, "I miss certain aspects of it. Like the restaurants and the museums, but for me it's now more an age and stage thing, about the quality of life we have here. It means not fighting your way through the New York subway any more."

Now, four years on, and under Richard's expert guidance, Addisons Auctioneers has blossomed into one of the best known local auction houses in the region. The profile of the salesrooms has risen dramatically since he joined in 2003 and business is booming.

Although as an estate agents Addisons has been around for a long time, auctions were more of a sideline. But because of the recent investment into this side - the new building with a car park and café/restaurant - it became important to develop it, says Richard - a challenge he clearly relishes.

A large part of his time is devoted to promotional work, like Antiques Roadshow-style evaluation events at schools, churches or WI meetings. And in July Addisons will be the setting for the TV auction programme Dickinson's Real Deals, with TV personality David Dickinson.

On a day-to-day basis, Richard's job is not only to manage the salesrooms but also to persuade people to sell their antiques at auction.

"People have to be confident that we can sell good quality things at the best prices. The Sotheby's experience definitely helps a lot with getting the good stuff. I have to admit," he smiles, "that I shamefully use that".

Richard's top five antiques to invest in

(growth areas that are doing well but are still cheap to buy)

1 20th Century art glass, produced after the war, 1950s,60s,70s

2 Early 18th Century oak country furniture

3 Vintage kitchenalia, like old rolling pins or enamel tin canisters

4 Etchings by British artists from the early 20th Century, 1900s- 1930s

5 Art Nouveau metal work, mostly pewter from 1900s, such as WMF (Wurtembergische Metalwaren Fabrik) and Liberty of London

* David Dickinson and his team will be at Durham University's Caedmon Hall, in Durham, for an evaluation day, where the public can come along on Saturday, June 9.

The lots which get chosen will go forward for auction at Addisons on July 5. For more information contact Aaron Morgan at Dickinson's Real Deal, RDF Television West, Regent House, Regent Street, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4HG, phone 0117-970-7618 or email aaron.morgan@rdfmedia.com