AN 1820s Dutch equivalent of today's collectible partworks magazines is expected to fetch up to £8,000 when it is auctioned in Swindon next week.

These days people can buy week-by-week libraries covering topics ranging from serial killers to how to build a working model of a World War One bi-plane.

But between 1821 and 1828, the Dutch had the chance to collect a series of prints of artworks by Old Masters complete, as in today's partworks, with explanatory texts,

The collection eventually totalled 106 prints and it is thought that only about six complete runs survive worldwide.

On Wednesday, 54 prints from the series, with a volume of notes, will go under the hammer at Dominic Winter Book Auctions in Maxwell Street.

Mr Winter said: "There has never been anything better than this in terms of reproductions of the Old Masters, although we only have part of it.

"There are only a handful of complete collections throughout the world perhaps six.

"The thing about this series is that they have tended to be broken up as buyers have hung the prints on their walls over a period of nearly 200 years.

"The commercial idea was just the same as the partworks of today."

The collection was sourced from a private owner.

Other highlights of Wednesday's sale include:

A copy of the 20-volume third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, issued between 1797 and 1801 and expected to sell for up to £600.

A signed photograph of actor Humphrey Bogart, which is expected to raise up to £200. The Casablanca star died of lung cancer in 1957. The picture is inscribed: "To Tony."

An autograph signed by Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, which the auction house says should raise up to £80.

A first edition of explorer Captain James Cook's A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Around the World. The two-volume edition dates from 1777 and includes 63 engraved plates, charts and maps. Mr Winter said he expected bidding to reach as much as £3,500.

The auction was to have included a signed letter of condolence by Dambusters leader Guy Gibson to the mother of one of the 617 Squadron members whod ied in the attack.

However, it was withdrawn from sale after the auction house established that it was almost certainly a contemporary copy of the original letter, made by a member of the missing crewman's family and given to his fiancee as a keepsake.

Details of forthcoming sales are available on 01793 811340 and at www.dominicwinter. co.uk.

bhuson@newswilts.co.uk