A collection of 21 watercolours thought to have been painted by Adolf Hitler are due to go under the auctioneer's hammer at a sale rooms in Cornwall today.

The paintings and sketches, some signed A Hitler, and others AH, are judged to be authentic because they are similar to other work by the Nazi dictator, who once dreamed of being a fine artist. They are expected to fetch up to £3,000.

A spokesman for Jefferys Auctioneers in Lostwithiel said that steps were taken to prove the authenticity of the watercolours without success but the paper has been dated and the style is the same.

The spokesman added that there would be a security presence at the auction rooms, but no problems were expected. There has been international interest in the sale.

The pictures are believed to have been painted between 1915 and 1918, on the border of France and Belgium where Hitler was a corporal in the First World War. They were stored for nearly 70 years in a suitcase in an attic until they were discovered in 1986.

It is understood that when Jefferys sold a single 1924 Hitler painting last November (a caricature of a Dutch postman that fetched £5,200, sold by a collector from Torpoint in Cornwall who had bought it from a friend of Otto Gunsche, Hitler's personal adjutant), news travelled around the world and the owner of the latest batch, an elderly Belgian woman, got in touch.

Some of the paintings feature landscapes, others represent buildings. The paintings vary from postcard size to 10ins by 8ins (25cm by 20cm).

They may have been sold by the young Hitler through the Jewish art dealer who handled some of his early drawings. As a young drifter Hitler was turned down twice as a student by the Vienna Academy of Fine Art, and finally found a sense of purpose when he joined the army.

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