Peter Rabbit, Pooh and Beatles for sale

A COLLECTION of 60 Beatrix Potter first editions, including her 1902 debut, The Tale Of Peter Rabbit, is being auctioned tomorrow. The books are being sold in 27 separate lots in Aylsham, Norfolk, with Peter Rabbit alone estimated to fetch up to £1,200.

Other titles under the hammer include The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tale Of Jemima Puddle-Duck and The Tale Of Mr Jeremy Fisher.

Potter, born in London in 1866, used to draw pictures of her first pet rabbit, Benjamin Bouncer. She had a lifelong love of the Lake District and invested the money she made from her books in buying several farms there.

Auctioneer Robert Henshilwood described the first editions as a “remarkable collection”, adding: “Many people will remember reading these books as children, and it is that familiarity which makes them so collectable.” A first edition of AA Milne’s

The House At Pooh Corner from

1928, will also be auctioned, with an estimated price of up to £600.

Separately, a psychedelic landscape which the Beatles wanted to use on their album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,

is expected to sell for £90,000 at Sotheby’s next week. The art, which depicts a dreamscape at sunset, replete with parrot, peacock and several mushrooms, was commissioned by the group to fill the inner section of the record’s sleeve. But they were persuaded to reject the design in favour of a photographic portrait of themselves wearing coloured tunics. Gabriel Heaton, director specialist at Sotheby’s, said it shed light on “the aesthetics that the Beatles were thinking about at the time”. He added: “It’s very much in the space of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. If you look carefully around the picture, in various places there are these mushrooms growing.”