A NUMBER of expensive collectables have come up for auction with this being the 150th anniversary of the birth of Lakeland author Beatrix Potter. The February 25 sale by Nate D. Sanders, at Los Angeles, California, has a first edition of Beatrix Potter’s third book The Tailor of Gloucester. 

It is signed by the Lakeland author and dedicated to a Mr Butler on January 16 in 1903. 

This privately published edition of just 500 came out in 1902. 

It is expected to sell for £3,000 to £4,500. The Dreweatts and Bloomsbury sale in London on February 25, also has a first edition of The Tailor of Gloucester - but this one is in relatively poor condition and lacks the all-important author’s signature. 

It has repairs, some marking and has been rebacked in recent times. 

It comes with a rebacked first Warne edition of Peter Rabbit from 1902, with one of the illustrations missing. 

This pair of rare and early Potter books should still make £200 to £300. 

The same sale has a first edition copy of The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse, from the second or third printing and an early printing of The Roly-Poly Pudding. 

This pair of Potter books should make £180 to £220. Mullocks Auctioneers, of Church Stretton, Shropshire, has an invitation to the launch of the Barrow armoured cruiser Natal in its March 1 sale. 

The invitation to the Barrow shipyard event is dated September 30 in 1905 and comes with a menu card for an 11-course celebration dinner. 

The pre-sale estimate on this pair of items is £60 to £80. 

A sale at Potteries Auctions, of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on February 27 has a pair of small, limited edition, character jugs by Royal Doulton featuring the Ulverston-born comic actor Stan Laurel and his screen partner Oliver Hardy. 

They are expected to sell for £50 to £100.