MORE than 350 Poole Pottery items, including a number of rare ceramics, will be auctioned in Wareham.

The sale, at Cottees Auctions, includes a large dish, decorated with a Port of Poole Empire Airways flying boat, dated 1940 but painted in 1941 by Ruth Paveley after a design by Arthur Bradbury.

It is believed only six dishes of the same design were ever produced, including one presented to an envoy of President Roosevelt.

Experts have valued the dish between £1,200 and £1,500.

Cottees’ John Condie explained: “Flying boat operations were moved from Southampton to Poole in 1940 because Southampton was too much of a strategic bombing risk.

“Flying boats were luxury aircraft which flew from England to Australia and other Commonwealth countries and were made by Shorts in Sunderland, who also produced the famous Sunderland bomber.”

The auction will also feature a rare archive of watercolour tiles by various designers, which have been consigned from the estate of former Poole Pottery tile painter Phyllis Butler.

The sale, the first of Cottee’s bi-annual Poole Pottery auctions, takes place on May 17.

There will be a viewing day, on May 16, from 10am-5pm – and viewing again from 8.30am on the day of the auction.