 HE started with just £500 and a battered old van. Now Seppe Anthony and his partner Clare Smith are opening their first antiques shop in North Tyneside. It’s a dream come true for the couple, who both went to Heathfield School in Low Fell but met at an auction in Rothbury 13 years ago. "It’s exciting," says Seppe, 38, who quit a hated office job eight years ago to scour the auctions for bargains full-time. "I come to work singing now!" The couple, who have a seven-year-old son, Harvey, opened Chic Antiques last month on North Tyne Industrial Estate. "Clare always had a dream of having a shop with white brick walls, so this is perfect," says Seppe (short for Guiseppe). It’s crammed to the rafters with a mish mash of second-hand furniture and accessories from 50s kitchen crockery and vintage signs to classic leather Chesterfields, clocks and Art Deco chairs. Seppe’s interest in antiques goes back 20 years. He says: "I’ve always been around flea markets, helping people at antique fairs around the country as casual labour and doing markets like Tynemouth Station. It slowly snowballed from there." Over the years Seppe and Clare have had concessions within antiques centres in Barnard Castle and in the Midlands as well as a brief spell at Fern Avenue in Jesmond. But now they’re delighted to have their own premises, which consists of a showroom and workshop for restoring the furniture they sell. In the future they may even offer a re-upholstery service, especially as Absolutely Fabrics is nearby. But while they love their new base, it’s still the buying trips that provide the most buzz and excitement for the couple. As well as dealing with overseas traders at countrywide trade fairs, they tend to fill their van with vintage treasures on buying trips to France, Belgium and Spain. "You’ve got these fantastic Broccantes, which we don’t have in this country," says Seppe. "The French ones are best. They’re a way of life over there. They often block the entire village off. At the last one, we walked from six in the morning until seven at night." Seppe admits he still gets a thrill when he’s researched something or seen something in a museum and then stumbles across a prime example. "The day of the auction comes and your heart’s going like mad," he says. "You’ve got that adrenalin rush if you get it at the price you want – that’s where the buzz is. It makes all the research worthwhile." Adds Clare, 37: "Even if you miss it, it’s all part of that learning curve." | 
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