After 34 years at the helm of Soucheby’s Antiques, Bob Souch says it’s finally time to hand over the keys.
The 83-year-old is looking for someone to take over the well-known business at 92 Bateup Rd, bringing to a close what he describes as “the most fun I’ve ever had”.
The business has been on and off the market for the past few years, but Bob says the time has come to get “serious” about selling.
“Putting it bluntly, the mileage on my clock is sufficiently high so now I’ve got to be serious,” the father of four quips.
“The whitebait season is also getting very close… and we want to do another trip to see our grandchildren in England.”
Whitebaiting might have to come first though, he reckons.
Soucheby’s has been a family affair, with his wife Joanne and son Rupert working alongside Bob over the years.
The business specialises in antiques, fine art, furniture and collectables, with everything from kauri, rimu and oak furniture to ceramics, porcelain, toys, militaria and collectables.
Bob has built a reputation as a valuer and art specialist over 36 years in the antiques trade.
However, he says his path into the business was anything but planned.
Before antiques, Bob owned a farm and a real estate business on the Coromandel coast. When he sold both, he agreed to look after a second-hand shop while its owners went overseas, before buying the business himself.
Not long afterwards, while in Auckland, curiosity got the better of him and he attended an auction.
“I sat down, and without a clue, I started buying. I then drove home, parked up in the little main street of Coromandel the next morning, and people were buying things off the back of the trailer.”
A couple of years later, the family came to Nelson to house-sit. They loved the region so much, they decided to move here permanently.
Bob found work on a kiwifruit orchard for six months before a newspaper advertisement for an auction caught his eye.
He wandered in “to have a nosey”, but once again found himself buying.
“I’m standing at the back, buying all this stuff… the auction finished and they asked, ‘where's your shop?’, and I said, ‘I haven’t got one’.”
So, the next day, having not paid the account, he found an empty shop in Richmond’s old mall, and opened Soucheby’s the day after.
The business eventually outgrew its original premises and moved to a larger site on Queen St.
But when the rent went up, an unexpected discovery changed everything.
A painting of an Indian fort that had lingered in his shop with an $800 price tag turned out to be Ryacotta, in the Barramah'l, an 1801 work by Thomas Daniell. Bob flew to London to watch it go under the hammer, where it fetched more than $200,000.
“Can you imagine?” Bob enthuses. “So, we said bye bye to our landlord.”
The windfall allowed the family to build Soucheby’s distinctive castle building on Gladstone Rd, which housed the business until it moved to Bateup Rd in 2023.
While the business has changed locations over the years, the antiques trade has changed too, Bob says.
“There’s always been collectors, but what happens now is that these collectors are watching either your website, eBay or Trade Me.”
The business now freights a huge amount of stock around the country and employs an almost full-time packer.
It has also taken Bob around the world, with buying trips to England and Europe a regular part of the business.
One memorable experience came after he unknowingly sold antiques to the dressmakers of the British royal family.
As for retirement, he is not convinced it will be complete.
“My wife said, ‘you won't really retire, will you'? I’ve got a little bit of a modest private collection, and we’ll just sell a few bits and pieces.”
But, he will certainly miss the shop.
“If I had my time again, I’d do it all over again – only I'd start even younger. If you find something that you like doing, and it pays enough, it’s an absolute blessing. I regard myself as a pretty lucky chap.”
