A decade of auctions for Jennifer

Jennifer Bell ASFAV is celebrating her tenth year as part of the team at Chilcotts Auctioneers in Honiton, after what started out as a part-time admin job turned into a full-time career.

Jenny studied for a History degree at Southampton University, followed by a Masters at the University of Exeter. She then started on a self-build project in Wilmington with her partner. In 2014, after applying for part time work at Chilcotts she joined the then compact team of Duncan Chilcott, Liz Chilcott, and Dudley Broom.

Two days turned into three days, then full-time, as Jenny went on to develop the silver department, working closely with Jewellery Valuer & Cataloguer, Diana Hollis. She is now a Senior Valuer & Cataloguer as well as Auctioneer, one of two female auctioneers in the company.

This combination of roles, she says, makes her job really rounded. “I start by seeing customers with the items they want to sell, researching them, cataloguing them and finally auctioning them. When I’m on the rostrum, I have a personal connection with the customer, I feel like I’m seeing it through. It’s a personal type of service that the bigger auction houses don’t really have.”

Jenny says her great love is researching auction items. Amongst her personal highlights from her time at Chilcotts so far is a silver spoon collection she researched and catalogued in 2021; the ‘Charles C Brian Collection’ featured 53 lots of West Country spoons which achieved an impressive £43,000.

She also enjoys the variety and the occasionally unexpected nature of the business. “Sometimes you’ll be unpacking a box or visiting a house to view the contents and you come across something really special. It can be very exciting for us, and for the client.”

When Jenny started, Chilcotts was based next to the Silver Street car park, now the site of Churchill Retirement Living’s Otter Lodge. The business has since moved to the beautiful Dolphin Saleroom on Honiton High Street, and the team has expanded to 14 full and part time staff.

Liz Chilcott added: “We’re so pleased that Jenny decided to join the team a decade ago. She clearly loves what she does and really works hard to achieve the best results for our clients. We look forward to the next 10 years!”