A RARE first edition of a Beatrix Potter book is to go up for auction in North Yorkshire next month.

Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes is set for sale in Tennants’ Book, Maps and Ephemera Auction at the auction house in Leyburn on August 2 with an estimated guide price of £800 to £1,200.

The volume, complete in its original dust wrapper, is said by the auction house to be in “exceptionally good” condition.

Appley Dapply was the first book that departed from Beatrix Potter’s usual narrative tales. She was very fond of rhymes and had been gathering together verses and illustrations since the publication of her first book. When her publishers, Frederick Warne & Co ran into financial difficulty in 1917, Beatrix Potter offered them her rhymes as they could be published straight away.

It was a huge success and saw the sale of more than 20,000 copies in two months shortly after release.

The auction also includes Part II of the John Berry Collection of original illustrations made for Ladybird books by artist and illustrator John Berry.

Part I of the collection featured nostalgia-filled pictures containing the ideals of the 1960s and 1970s and sold in April with great interest.

Ladybirds’ distinctive small hardback books were set up to provide "pure and healthy" literature for children and combined simple and engaging information with colourful illustrations.

John Berry was one of Ladybird’s foremost and longest serving artists; he illustrated over 35 books for Ladybird between 1961 and 1978, including the popular ‘People at Work’ series and the ‘Hannibal the Hamster’ series.