A new art and antiques gallery has opened in Dartmouth, bringing together decades of collecting, design work and artistic practice from its proprietor, who says the venture is as much about clearing a lifetime’s possessions as it is about starting something new.

David Bagot 86 explained where his love of antiques comes from: “I've been in antiques all my life, and a lot of this is just stuff I've collected over the last 60 years, and I've gone from big houses to small houses to flats now, so I've got to clear it all.

“Nearly all of this has come out of my flat, and some of it goes back to my grandfather's antiques, Russian glasses that he brought from the Summer Palace in Russia in the First World War. Tsar Nicholas II era.

“He walked 200 miles with this stuff on his back so, some of it is very historical for me.”

David said his grandfather was a major influence on his creative path: “My grandfather was a good artist.

“I went to Birmingham Art College, and then I went to London Art College, and qualified as a furniture designer,

“I worked as a designer at Harrods and Debenhams.

“I then opened a shop in London, and I was there for 21 years selling my own designs under the name David Bagot Design, and that was in Old Brompton Road, then I came down here for the sailing in 1997.

“I raced at the Royal Dart Yacht Club for years and years, and I was driving from Oxfordshire, where I was living at the time, and I got fed up with the journey, so I decided to move down”David

Among the items on display are early Dutch prints, sculptural pieces and decorative objects including an Art Deco clock.

Aside from his studies in both Birmingham and London David also spent six months painting in Spain and Portugal.

“The real reason I opened was I wanted to start my own gallery.

“These are my paintings, the blue ones.

“I joined the Art Society when I first moved down, and I've been painting ever since, so I always wanted a gallery and I thought, well, if I mix the gallery with antiques, I can clear a lot of my old stuff from home.

“That's early Dutch (pointing out a print) and things like this sculpture, the Dolphins.

“Pieces and unusual things like this Art Deco clock are lovely and it’s Smith's.

“I’ll probably take two or three months to clear all this that you see around you and then decide what to do.”

David is 86 now and says he is about to retire for the 10th time: “I've had shops all over down the years.

“I had a shop in Foss Street, a shop in Anzac Street and, of course, the shop in London for 21 years so I've always been in retail.

“I like meeting people and presenting unusual stuff.”