RESIDENTS across Dorset can now get their hands on rare items from a country home built over 120 years ago.

It comes as Charterhouse auctioneers based in Sherborne were instructed to sell the contents of the Devon home.

Summerfield House, Summer Lane, in Exmouth, is a country house built in the 19th century with tall bay windows and stunning views towards the River Exe over rolling Devon countryside.

Highlights of the auction are two Archibald Thorburn watercolour drawings of partridges and grouse, estimated from £10,000 to £18,000, which are believed to have likely been bought new by the family that lived there in 1906.

“It is a classic country house auction, the likes of which were once commonplace but now rarely happen," said auctioneer Richard Bromell.

“It has been fascinating sorting, clearing and cataloguing the contents of this country house which has not changed much during the 120 years the family have lived there, from the Silver Cross coach built perambulator relegated to the attic rooms decades ago to a framed collection of West Country pony club and other show rosettes which was still hanging on a bedroom wall.”

The ground floor showcases ceilings of about 18 feet high, and a large pair of Victorian gilt gesso mirrors are valued at £2,500-4,000.

While a large 19th-century Italian inlaid ebonised cabinet, in the manner of Giovanni Battista Gatti, will be auctioned at £8,000-10,000, despite needing some restoration.

In the drawing room, with its floor to ceiling bay windows, laid a Bechstein grand piano.

It is understood not to have been played for at least the last 40 years, and is estimated at £600-£1,000.

Also in the drawing room are a group of Chinese ceramics and pictures bought back in the 1920s, such as a scroll painting.

Now in two parts, this three-metre painting is valued at £2,000-3,000, while elsewhere in this country house auction there is furniture, clocks, pictures, ceramics, books, photograph albums, oriental items, metal wares, taxidermy and silver along with vintage clothing and lawnmowers from the cellars, out buildings and attic rooms.

The auction will be held behind closed doors online at the Charterhouse salerooms in Sherborne on Wednesday July 22, at 12pm, with telephone and absentee bidding.

For more information, contact Richard Bromell and the team at Charterhouse at 01935 812277.