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His collection of rare Lalique vases is worth more than a million dollars, so when Professor Jack Richards' home was rocked by Gisborne's earthquake, his heart understandably skipped a beat.
But the collection, which has been displayed in several museum exhibitions, survived without a single breakage.
Jack Richards, an English professor, owns 112 pieces by the early 20th-century artist Rene Lalique.
They are displayed at his Wainui Beach home, in a room designed for the purpose.
The most expensive piece is valued at about US$40,000 ($52,400).
When the quake started, he was walking home with his partner from a friend's home.
"We'd had dinner and we were coming home when it hit.
"I immediately thought, 'Is it going to be the big one?'
"Then I quickly began to think about the property.
"It was such a violent quake. I realised it was a lot of fragile stuff.
"And then I thought, 'Oh my goodness, is the insurance up to date?' "
Under his insurance conditions, he must secure the pieces to shelving.
But he hadn't figured out where two newly acquired vases - dating from 1925 and 1931 - would go.
They had yet to be glued down with a wax resin.
His home is on a concrete slab which absorbed the energy of the quake, but Professor Richards was still anxious when he walked through the door.
However, in its first real test, the wax held up and both unsecured vases were sitting upright when Professor Richards checked the room.
In a house filled with beautiful art, only one piece of New Zealand pottery was smashed.
Making sure his insurance policy is up to date is now top of Professor Richards' list of things to do.
The vases line three walls in rainbow hues - the glass clarity ranges from clear to solid milky - and have been sent out on loan to museums in Auckland and Wellington.
Professor Richards has been collecting them since buying his first piece in Egypt in 1975.
"Once you start collecting you think, 'I better have this piece, but I better have this piece in all the colours'."
Fascinated by the match of design and form and the way Lalique transformed a common substance into a jewel-like work of art, he began a collection that continues to grow year by year.
It is, he says, an obsession.
