Two timely triumphs in Dorset…

The clock, with central Greenwich dial and 11 smaller dials, was illustrated on the front page of ATG No.1671 (January 8).

However, the personal favourite of auctioneer Richard Bromell was an exquisite, mahogany-cased Regency clock. With its 31/2in (9cm) silvered dial signed Jump, London, it was enthusiastically received by dealers and collectors alike and sold at £4400.

Also of note in this 1032-lot sale that totalled £115,000 was an autograph album with the signatures of many leading Himalayas climbers from the late 1920s and 1930s, including Frank Smythe and E.E. Shipton.

The album was compiled by a friend of the vendor, a Miss Dudley, who had gathered the signatures while based at a Himalayan camp in Gangtok.

“I had commission bids ranging from £200 to four-figure bids,” said Mr Bromell. “Many people did not know what they would pay until the day of the sale.”

In the event, the album was knocked down to a dealer at a lofty £3800.

Interest was patchier in both the teddy bear and firearm sections. Lack of interest in the former was more a result of the quality, condition and late dates of many of the examples offered rather than any downturn of interest in the field, while the punchy estimates for many of the firearms proved a deterrent for a number of buyers.

At Charterhouse’s 913-lot sale back on November 12 another timepiece led the day – an 18ct gold Patek Philippe watch at £4150.

The same sale saw £650 bid on a Victorian diamond star brooch which the vendor had dug it up in his garden.