Time was on the hands of Whitchurch's Trevanion and Dean with the sale of an 18-carat gold Rolex watch for more than £8,000 on Saturday.

The watch was sold to a private seller in the south of England for £8,680 and it was hotly contested by bidders in the room, online and on the telephone, continuing an on-going trend in demand for exceptional quality watches at the saleroom in Station Road.

The team at Trevanion and Dean have had a busy spring so far holding valuation events around the country with fellow auctioneer and BBC television antiques star Timothy Medhurst.

Several of the top-selling lots in the auction were identified during these valuation events and included the biggest surprise of the auction day; a pair of ceramic tiles.

The tiles were brought along to a valuation day held by the firm of auctioneers just over the border in Tattenhall, Cheshire and were inherited from family before being valued and sent to auction, selling for £3,000.

Auctioneer Christina Trevanion said: "The tiles were by one of the most important ceramic designers the 20th century has known – Charlotte Rhead, up there with the great female potters.

"As soon as they were unpacked the characteristic tube lining method and bright colours that Charlotte was so well known for just glowed at me.

"It was an absolute joy to see them, I can understand why they wouldn’t be to everybody’s taste, but at the same time, the work that has gone in to producing them is quite exceptional, and can only have been produced by somebody of quite rare talent like Charlotte."

The tiles were sold to a delighted UK-based telephone bidder and private collector of the Rhead’s work.

Another of the top selling lots of the day was an interesting Ottoman medal and order group in relation to a gentleman called John Stevenson. The auctioneers consigned the group during their valuation day at Great Alne Park, in Warwickshire.

Stevenson was an Englishman seconded to the Ottoman armoury works in Constantinople in the 1870s, the medals came with photographs and paperwork stating that the ‘Articles of Agreement between his Excellency Musurus Pasha and Stevenson'.

Auctioneer Aaron Dean added: "Medal groups such as this just don’t come on the market very often and this was a fantastic example of a good foreign order group for a British citizen. The fact the family had managed to retain all the original paperwork and photographs of Stevenson really added."

Elsewhere around the saleroom, the auctioneers reported strong results in the jewellery and silver sections where a solitaire diamond ring sold for £1,700, a silver and enamelled Liberty clock sold for £1,500 and buoyant furniture and clocks categories were lead by a Regency occasional table which sold for £750 and a Continental long case clock circa 1900 made £1,600.