Devon

HMS Foudroyant, which served as Nelson’s flagship in the Mediterranean Squadron, had been touring English seaside resorts as an attraction when it was wrecked off Blackpool Sands on June 16, 1897.

A lot offering Action Man outfits and accessories from the flock hair period c.1970 sold for 100 times the low estimate at a Devon saleroom thanks to a considerable rarity it contained.

Among the lots catching bidders’ eyes in the last few months were a number of intriguing portraits that came up at sales in south-west England.

As Sand, an Elizabethan house in east Devon which has been in the Huyshe family since 1560, is being sold for the first time in over 460 years, Chilcotts (21% buyer’s premium) dispersed much of the contents on July 16.

A jewellery dealer with years of experience honed at Portobello, Greenwich and Covent Garden markets now owns a busy antiques shop in east Devon.

These two oak boarded chests, made to similar techniques four centuries apart, were offered for sale recently.

A regular two-day auction of silver, art and antiques? Not at Whittons in Honiton, Devon, where the firm called its sale on June 8-9 a ‘Jubilee auction’ and auctioneer Ed Whitton donned a suitably patriotic jacket and tie to sell a good range of lots such as Georgian silver and Victorian jewellery.

A selection of Second World War ephemera with a distinctly Polish flavour estimated at £60-100 sold instead for £7600 at a Devon auction.

On April 9, Chilcotts (21% buyer’s premium) in Honiton, Devon, offered 25 lots of Heal’s limed oak furniture from a single property.

A Plymouth solicitor’s lifetime appreciation of West Country silver was shared by enthusiastic bidders at Chilcotts’ (21% buyer’s premium) Honiton rooms.

These days, marketing a doll as Sindy’s saucy sister would be problematic. And the less said about outfits titled Hockey Honey or School Days, the better.

Horology dealer who will stand at Lingfield says buyers are keen to do repairs themselves

This late 18th century Channel Islands silver coffee pot has marks for the Jersey silversmith Jacques Quesnel I.

As very personal items, typically weighing little more than an ounce of bullion, the most numerous silver survivors from the 17th century are spoons.

It was a case of the cows coming home after 30 years for one buyer at a recent auction.

Anything and everything to do with the garden is how Hyson Fairs describes its popular fairs in Devon.

As the sale title suggested, plenty of Bowie material appeared in Omega’s (28% buyer’s premium inc VAT) David Bowie & Glam Rock Vinyl Records & Memorabilia auction earlier this year.

Bolstered by a strong melt price of over £15 an ounce, domestic silver hollowwares and flatwares are selling strongly. However, it is the pieces of collectable value – novelties, provincial rarities and the work of the best Georgian, Regency and Victorian smiths – that continue to perform best in the market