THERE is much to interest the antiques connoisseur and the sporting enthusiast as auctioneers Greenslade Taylor Hunt play host to two days of sales at The Octagon Salerooms, East Reach, Taunton.

More than 1,100 lots will go under the hammer over the next two days with proceedings kicking off today (Thursday, October 6) with the regular monthly antiques sale.

There is a fine selection of jewellery and silver among the lots on offer including nine striking pieces by a jewellery maker whose work has never been sold commercially before.

Roma Galton (nee Smith) was born in Dudley, West Midlands in 1925. She was always artistic and could turn her hand to any art or craft and was proficient at painting and glass engraving. She took up jewellery making in the late 1970s. She attended many classes at West Dean College, near Chichester and Eastleigh College, near Southampton on gold and silver working and fine jewellery making. She bought much of her own equipment and had a workroom in her home. Roma registered her own hallmark in the 1980s, a crucifer-shaped mark with her four initials: R,H,N, & G for Roma Heather Naylor Galton. She was a prolific and fastidious worker, although she produced works only for herself, close family and friends.

Tomorrow (Friday) attention turns to the biannual sporting sale. Entries have come from across the country drawn to the premier specialist sale devoted to all things of a sporting nature.

Greenslade Taylor Hunt are delighted to have been instructed to sell the shop stock of Wayne’s Tackle, Bridgwater, the first instalment of which forms a significant part of this sale. Wayne Foran was a life-long fisherman who managed to turn his hobby interest into a successful business. He first began trading in Puriton in 1981, before moving to rented premises at Eastover, Bridgwater and, later, buying a shop of his own further along the same street. This became a “mecca” for local anglers and was well-known across Somerset and beyond. Wayne’s own preference was for beach-casting but his shop carried a broad range of items for both the experienced and the novice fisherman. Sadly illness resulted in the closure of the shop some years ago but the shelves and storeroom remained full and it is this stock, fresh to the market and most of it ‘as new’, that Greenslade Taylor Hunt can now offer to fishing enthusiasts and collectors.

The auctioneers will be visiting branch offices in Somerset and Devon in October, November and December to provide verbal valuations and also provide a convenient opportunity for vendors to consign items for upcoming antique, collectors’ and specialist sporting sales.

The experts will visit the Bridgwater office at 31-33 High Street, Bridgwater, between 2pm-4pm on Monday. (October 10). Next Saturday, October 15, they will attend Sedgemoor Auction Centre, North Petherton, between 10am and 12noon. On Thursday, October 20, they will visit the Ilminster office at 15 East Street, between 9am-11am, and the Chard office at 1 High Street, between 12 noon and 2pm.

Other dates at the same offices have been arranged for November and December along with sessions in South Molton and Tiverton.

For more information or to arrange a home visit please contact the auctioneers on 01823-332525.