Devon

A simple inscription on an antique can lead to a fascinating trail of research revealing so much more than just the story of the item itself. Take a 10in (25.5cm) long knife coming up in the Chilcotts sale in Honiton on September 9, estimated at £80-120.

A portrait of a beautiful but mysterious 19th century lady led a sale at Exeter-based auction house Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood taking a hammer price of £155,000.

It may be military gallantry medals that usually get all the glory but honours awarded to a lifeboat crew member sold in a Devon auction typify civilian bravery.

Plymouth Auction Rooms made a surprise find on a recent visit to a remote Cornish cottage on the banks of the river Tamar. The auction firm was valuing a mixture of Cornish art and collectables at the address when it came across a Pablo Picasso vase.

Auctioneer, valuer and ‘Antiques Roadshow’ expert Michael Newman died last month, aged 80.

A vast collection of nearly 3500 diecast models fetched £120,000 at west country auctioneers Piers Motley. The lifetime collection of John Kinchen had been “well known in the Dinky world for decades”.

A rotting old caravan propped up on a farm might not sound like the kind of place you’d expect to discover a valuable family heirloom. But for a Devon-based furniture restorer, it proved just that when they found an Art Deco brooch believed to be a rare piece hiding within the contents of the van.

There was drama at the Stonepark auction rooms of Rendells near Ashburton when this Isnik fritware tile was hammered down at £155,000 at their latest sale.

A bomb disposal team were called to Whittons Auctioneers in Honiton last week to remove several potentially dangerous wartime bombs.

Distressing footage of a female staff member at a Devon antique shop being grabbed by a robber has been released in an attempt to track down the man

Two 15th century painted panels from an oak screen which is one of the finest examples of its kind have been ripped out by thieves at a Devon church.

The contents of a filling station saved from the bulldozer and then converted into a museum will be offered for sale in July.

This DFC medal group of a British Spitfire pilot who survived the war despite crashing and being given up for dead by his colleagues has an estimate of £8000-10,000 in Plymouth Auction Rooms’ November 21 sale.

In a marketplace seriously in need of entry-level collectors, the great majority of Royal Doulton character jugs and HN series figures are worth under £100 – and most of them less than £30 when sold without reserve at auction.