A marriage made in sweet heaven produces £3m collection of bric-à -brac

As love stories go, they don't come much sweeter than the tale of Charles Robertson and Barbara Fry. He was the great- grandson of James Robertson, the Scottish founder of the jam firm and she was the great, great, great-granddaughter of Dr Joseph Fry, the man credited with selling the world's first chocolate bar back in 1847.

The couple met by chance in the early 1930s on a train from London to Bristol, each puzzling over the same crossword. Similar family backgrounds and a mutual love of cryptic questions were not all they had in common. As the conversation flowed, the pair discovered that they shared a passion for art and antiques.

They married in 1935 and, with the freedom and wealth provided by their combined family fortunes, embarked on half a century of careful collecting. Their quest took them not only to the showrooms of leading auction houses, but to peruse the shelves of junk shops and local sale rooms where they would happily buy cheap items that caught their eye, and which they would proudly display alongside their priceless art treasures.

Over the years, they furnished and decorated in the utmost style Combe Hay, a magnificent country house south of Bath, which they bought as a dilapidated wreck at the outbreak of World War Two; Stradling House, a villa-like property they built in the grounds; a London flat and a holiday home in Provence.

Now, because of the death earlier this year of Barbara Robertson at 87, their extraordinary collection is to be sold by Sotheby's in London on Nov-ember 27, where it is expected to realise as much as £3m.

When Sotheby's experts were called in, they discover that the couple had kept meticulous inventories detailing almost every painting, sculpture, piece of furniture and item of silver, glass or china.

Stradling House, which the Robertsons built in the grounds of Combe Hay and moved into in 1979, was designed as an art lover's haven. Off the entrance hall were the studies of Charles and Barbara, each with its fully stocked library of art reference books, and the remaining rooms – a dining room, a sitting room, a modern, utilitarian kitchen, a bathroom and two small bedrooms – were bedecked with items from their collections. There, next to paintings by L S Lowry and Frederic, Lord Leighton was the haul from the junk shops.

James Miller, Sotheby's deputy chairman, said: "There is a whole range of country house kit in the collection with estimates from £100 – beds, chests of drawers, light fittings, pictures and sculpture."

"The Roberstons began their collection during the 1930s. After the war, they gravitated towards London and started visiting Sotheby's and Christie's and were among the first people to collect Art Nouveau. Their Art Nouveau furniture collection was left to the Brighton Museum when Charles died in 1983."