Auctioneer Jo Byrne has learned to expect the unexpected. She simply never knows what is likely to turn up at the auction house she runs with her husband Adrian – but she knows it is likely to be exciting.

“You can never make assumptions. People turn up and you think they have nothing with them, then they start emptying valuable items from their pockets,” she said.

Jo loves the excitement of the unusual business she has found herself involved in – almost by accident.

“I did a degree in rural land management so I should have been a property surveyor,” she explains. “However, I went travelling and when I came back I found myself in Suffolk, where the local land agents were advertising an admin position. I assumed it was an agricultrual-based position but it was in the fine art department. I had to learn about fine art very quickly, including a new language of terminology.”

It was there that she met her husband, Adrain, who was the senior fine art valuer.

After many years in the auctioneering business Jo is very knowledgeable about everything from art to furniture, but she has a special interest in jewellery.

“As a woman I think you are naturally drawn towards beautiful things like jewellery, although I am not a collector myself. I find the quality and workmanship of Art Deco pieces very appealing.

“We get some very old pieces of jewellery in, like mourning rings. When you think of the history that is inherent in the piece it is fascinating.”

Jo and Adrian opened the Saltney auction rooms four years ago after a spell in the city centre. “This is the ideal location,” Jo said. “It is the old signalling shed for the railway and is all on one level.”

The Byrne’s business is now well established and an increasing number of sales take place each year. General sales are held every two weeks, there are quarterly fine arts and antique sales, and three collectors’ and three sporting gun sales each year.

“We are doing very well considering that in the world of auctioneering you would have to be around for about 100 years to become established,” said Jo.

Business has increased rapidly in the past year, a trend which Jo links to the recession. “We think it’s because people have decided to invest their money in antiques and fine arts,” she said.

The popularity of antiques shows on TV have also helped.

In the past year they dealt with 3,144 buyers, 2,744 vendors and handled 16,700 lots.

“We can sell anything from a tray of glasses for £5 right up to expensive collectors’ items,” said Jo.

Their most exciting sale attracted 13 phone bidders from places as far-flung as Hong Kong, France and Italy, all hoping to buy a Chinese Imperial gilt bronze and cloisonne archaistic champion vase. “It was our record sale at £190,000,” said Jo.

The internet has also changed the way auctioneers do business with sales being opened up to bidders across the world.

“You can be sitting on a beach somewhere with your laptop and bid on something across the world in a specialist sale.”

On the other hand Jo also loves dealing with house clearances. “We do a lot of them and you can come across some real gems,” she says. “But even if something is of low value we feel it is better to re-home it. We are the ultimate recyclists.”

For Jo, one of the most exciting aspects of the business is sale day when she is up on the rostrum, gavel in hand.

“There are quite a lot of female auctioneers now but when I started out in Suffolk I was the only one,” says Jo. “It is not an easy thing to do and at first you find yourself counting numbers in your sleep. Nothing prepares you for it.”