A RING believed to have belonged to Mary Queen of Scots sold for £5,000 at an auction in Tavistock this Monday.
The small gold 'portrait ring' dates back to the 16th century, and features a crystal-glazed miniature portrait of Mary as a child inside a border of rubies and seed pearls.
Auctioneer Robin Fenner, of the Stannary Gallery, said the ring had been bought by a telephone bidder from Scotland. It was part of a sale of items from a Dartmoor estate.
'If we had some contemporary documentary evidence I would have expected it to make more, but still it went at the top estimate, so we are pleased,' said Mr Fenner.
The ring was thought to have been painted on the occasion of Mary's fourth birthday.
According to family legend, it was given by Mary the night before she was beheaded in 1587, to her god-daughter, Mary Strickland. The ring was handed down through generations of the Strickland family.
The highest bid of the day was for a trio of 18th century Japanese vases which were sold for £19,000. Mr Fenner said they had been heavily restored so the expected price had been around half the final sum. The vases were secured by a telephone bidder from Osaka, Japan.
Mr Fenner said the auction was well attended, with the fine art, jewellery and silver markets seeming buoyant.
Mr Fenner said he had received a total of 2,500 enquiries about the sale from people across the world, many of whom had been alerted to it on the internet.