Sold on the `Archers'

An Archers addict paid pounds 575 for the original 78rpm recording of the radio programme's theme tune. Hopeful fans packed a small auction room at Phillips in London. The successful bidder's identity is secret.

At Christie's in London, a 400-year-old gold ring found in a field in near Foulsham, Norfolk, fetched pounds 20,700.Research had established that the original owner was probably a Thomas Anguishe of Fowlsham (sic), mayor of Norwich in 1611, or his son.

In a sale at Swindon, the top tier of the Duke and Duchess of York's 1986 wedding cake sold for pounds 860, The 10-inch-square off-white decorated tier featuring the entwined initials AS was bought by John Bell, a magazine editor in Florida, for a competition. In June he paid pounds 640 for a piece of the Prince and Princess of Wales's wedding cake.