Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood

Dent and Co is one of the bestknown names in English horology with a long history of precision clock and watch making.

Interest in wireless telegraphy, that was piqued when Guglielmo Marconi successfully sent a message from Poldhu, Cornwall to St John’s, Newfoundland in 1910, prompted many amateurs to build and develop their own sets based on the ‘Coherer’ principle for sending and receiving Morse code.

Widely varying plans outlining a faraway harbour and a slice of rural Yorkshire bring saleroom surprises

The market for ‘after’ or ‘attributed to’ works is often rather unpredictable. While some works will inevitably fall flat at auction, others sometimes take off.

If this painting of a farmhouse in Brittany seems reminiscent of a piece of French Impressionism, that’s probably no coincidence.

A December 6 auction in Exeter was dominated by a lot estimated at just £40-60 but sold instead at £24,000.

Found in a cigar box during an attic clearance and taken to Exeter auction house Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood (25% buyer’s premium), seven framed daguerreotypes in poor condition provided one of the better sleepers of the year on November 22-23.

A clutch of good-quality traditional landscapes exceeded hopes at Exeter saleroom Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (25% buyer’s premium).

A selection of Doulton HN series rarities sold at three regional salerooms this month.

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.

The Summer Sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter on July 13-15 includes this mid-Victorian colour change sapphire and rose-cut diamond pendant.

Translating simply as ‘a box with drawers’ but so much more exotic than that, a rare Spanish Renaissance caja con cajones was the outstanding lot at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s (25% buyer’s premium) quarterly fine art sale in Exeter.

RAF Wing Commander Terence Helfer’s Distinguished Flying Cross citation stated: “He has undertaken many hazardous missions…”

A handsome group of eight volumes commemorating the Great Exhibition of 1851 sold in Exeter had been presented to one of its commissioners, England’s serial Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone.

A copy of Richard Hakluyt’s 'The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation' takes a six-figure sum at Devon sale.

Antarctic maps take highest prices in collection relating to key Terra Nova crew member

Chinese trick or surprise cups were made to deceive a drinker and illustrate the classical paradigm that modesty brings gain and arrogance results in loss.

Walter Sickert and Winifred Nicholson feature in Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood's picture sale.

Naive-style Cornish art has been on a good run at regional auctions over recent months.