30 August 2012 Last updated at 10:06 ET

Rare Robert Louis Stevenson auctioned for £500

The book is expected to fetch between £400-£800 when it goes up for auction next week

A rare first-edition book of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson signed by the author's mother has sold for £500 after it was handed in to a charity shop.

A Child's Garden Of Verses was anonymously handed in to Oxfam on Byres Road, Glasgow, and was auctioned to raise funds for the charity.

Stevenson's mother Margaret had given the book to her niece and nephew as a gift.

She inscribed it: "To my GG Niece and Nephew at Chudleigh with kind love."

John Connolly, the Byres Road shop manager, said: "Donations like this are rare and we are delighted with this sale.

"The money raised will support Oxfam's cause to fight poverty around the world. For example, £400 would pay for a community library in Malawi.

"I'm glad this piece of literary history has gone to help those in need."

A slip of paper inside the book, which was first published in 1885, revealed it came from the library of Dr Adam Watson, who was Stevenson's contemporary at Edinburgh University and his first cousin once removed.

As well as his poetry and travel writing, Edinburgh-born Stevenson's novels Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde have become some of the most famous stories ever written.

The first edition of A Child's Garden Of Verses was auctioned at Bonhams, in Edinburgh.