A FASCINATING collection of historic pictures, artefacts and books from the Bournemouth area is to go under the hammer at House & Sons, auctioneers at the Lansdowne on Tuesday, July 3.

With 30 years collecting behind him, a retired Bournemouth antique dealer is downsizing to a smaller home in the Branksome area.

This entails a thorough sort-out of his collection built up during the three decades he had shops in Westbourne and Poole.

"During the years I've been in the antiques business I've come across choice pieces and have hung on to some of the more interesting pieces," said the dealer, who wishes to remain anonymous.

There are in the region of 50 lots to be put into the auction.

One of the biggest and brightest is a 1958 painting of a Spanish mountain town executed by Sven Berlin, who lived in Wimborne.

With the painting will come a letter written by Berlin in 1998 and, as the seller says: "The nice thing is it's in one of his own frames; because he made his own frames. It's a very nice example of his work."

Another painting to be sold is a 1930s pen, ink and watercolour of Bemister's Boat Yard in Christchurch by Bournemouth artist Eustace Nash.

And there is the framed original artwork for a Valentine's Art Cards postcard, painted in 1947 by a skilled watercolourist named Hailey.

It depicts crowds of people sunning themselves on the beach at West Cliff, Bournemouth.

Numbered A1497 in Valentine's series, it is a stunning work of art.

A black and white pen and ink illustration of Poole Quay with Poole Pottery's kilns in the background by etcher Leslie M Ward will go under the hammer, as will one of his fine etchings, of a boat repair yard in Poole, printed in 1921.

Also worthy of mention is a Harold Workman print, a pen and ink drawing of the Pavilion Gardens in Bournemouth.

Two framed theatre flyers will provoke much interest.

They are of revue-type performances staged in Boscombe Manor Theatre in Shelley Manor.

Printed in 1873 and 1877, they tell us that Sir Percy F Shelley and Lady Shelley both enjoyed taking part in the entertainments.

Sir Percy even arranged the music in one performance.

The seller described them as "extraordinarily rare".

Also for sale will be the 1892 prospectus for the Branksome Towers Estate where Merton Russell Cotes bought a plot for £16.15.0.

Other items include an American wall clock sporting a painted picture of "Branksea Castle, Dorsetshire, England"; a pair of Tiffany opera glasses with mother of pearl inscribed "M Russell Cotes"; and an ornate thermometer bearing the name Primavesi Bros, Opticians, Bournemouth.

A collection of 10 photographic glass lantern slides from the 1920s picture ships at Poole Quay and views of a quieter, more countrified Bournemouth, while a pile of postcards includes images of the Grotesque Carnival staged to mark the town's centenary (1810-1910).

Carnivals, it seems, were more spectacular then than now, if a photo of the crowded People of All Nations horse-drawn float in Dean Park Road in the 1890s is anything to go by.

"I just think they are so redolent of the age.

"The amount of trouble they went to to get the costumes and kit everybody out; it was just wonderful."

And the collection is pretty wonderful, too.