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Steele shows his mettle in the North West Mounted Police

01 April 2024

This North West Mounted Police hat badge caught the attention when Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (25% buyer’s premium) of Exeter sold the remaining personal effects of Canadian soldier and policeman Major General Sir Samuel Benfield Steele KCMG CB MVO (1848-1919) on March 19.

Collection

Jack the Ripper items from police investigator come to auction for the first time

26 February 2024

A previously unknown collection of items related to the Jack the Ripper murders will be offered at auction by Whitton & Laing in Exeter on March 22.

Victorian travel album

Indian and Egyptian travel photo album takes sensational £135,000

11 December 2023

An impressive result emerged at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood on December 5 when a travel album titled The Ramblings and Adventures of an Indian Officer was knocked down at £135,000.

Waverley typewriter,

Pick of the week: Short production window is key to typewriter’s rarity

27 November 2023

The writing was on the wall for the Waverley not long after it entered the market in 1895.

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Antiquities lots turn heads in salerooms

25 September 2023

This carved marble portrait head of a youth shown here is Roman and comes from a tightly dated period of the 2nd century.

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Homemade receiver ‘picked up news of the Titanic disaster’

10 July 2023

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.

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From Bombay to Crackpot Farm

26 June 2023

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

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Later Tate director also made a good impression as an artist early on

06 February 2023

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

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Mystery lot goes from £40-60 guide to £24,000

16 January 2023

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

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Collector interview: Museum plays its part covering the modern-day movers and shakers

19 December 2022

ATG talks to two collectors exhibiting works The Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery in Exeter

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Bidders desperate for daguerreotypes

12 December 2022

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.

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Picture specialist hails ‘very encouraging’ multi-estimate prices for old-school landscapes

21 November 2022

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

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How to figure out the two-tier market for Doulton HN series

31 October 2022

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

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Young sitters stand out despite lack of identification

29 August 2022

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.

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Diamond pendant was gift from a rear admiral

04 July 2022

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.

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With this marriage chest I thee wed

23 May 2022

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.

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Caterpillar and dolphin dangers

14 March 2022

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

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London exhibition lots join worldwide adventures at sale

31 January 2022

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.

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The Wright map that plots a route to £365,000

20 December 2021

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.

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Carpenter’s hits include chart toppers

01 November 2021

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