Rare Book Auction: A Guide to Watering Places , on the Coast between the Exe and the Dart

Roger Collicott has an ingrained passion for books, having been bought up with a background in printing.

On leaving school, it seemed that a career in the printing trade was almost inevitable. Roger served a six year apprenticeship at the prestigious WS Cowells in Ipswich before changing careers and moving to St Ives in Cornwall, where he developed skills as a leather craftsman, exhibiting at the inaugural exhibition of the highly regarded Cornwall Crafts Association.

Roger went on to have a successful career selling his craft work all over the World. While in St Ives, he developed a keen interest in the St Ives School of Artists and befriended a number of the artists. He has built up an extensive library of reference books relating to them over the years.

Roger is also a passionate collector of maps, focussing on Cornwall, but has developed an extensive knowledge of antique maps in general.

Roger became the book consultant at our predecessor firm of Hampton & Littlewood in 2002, where he was responsible for the sale of a number of important collections, including the Ron Morris Optical Toy and Moveable Image Collection, the Janet Hill Collection of Costume and Fashion Books and the Eileen Oates Collection of Cornish Books to name a few.

Since the the formation of Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, he has helped to build one of the few dedicated specialist auction book departments in the West Country, capable of handling all printed materials, books, maps, manuscripts and early photography.

Roger Collicott now lives in the heart of Dartmoor. Moving from collecting to selling is a small step. Roger has been retailing books, maps and prints for well over thirty years, these days with a strong online presence. A keen footballer when younger, he has swapped codes and is now more often found following Exeter Chiefs on a Saturday, when not trekking across his beloved moor with his two dogs.