Jane Austen's 'cup-and-ball' up for auction Published duration 11 December 2016

image copyright Getty Images image caption Jane Austen is said to have excelled at the cup-and-ball game

A toy played with by Jane Austen more than 200 years ago is expected to fetch between £20,000 and £30,000 at auction.

The Pride and Prejudice author played with the cup-and-ball game, also known as bilbocatch, at her home Chawton, Hampshire.

Though she died in 1817 the game remained there and has been passed down through her family ever since.

They include a letter from Austen to her sister Cassandra in 1800, which is expected to fetch between £40,000 and £60,000.

'Successful with her fingers'

Bilbocatch was a popular domestic game at which Austen is said to have been particularly good.

It consisted of a wooden cup with a handle, with a small ball attached by string. The goal is to get the ball in the cup.

In a letter Austen wrote about how the game was a part of daily life at Chawton House.

She said: "We do not want amusement: bilbocatch, at which [my brother] George is indefatigable; spillikins, paper ships, riddles, conundrums, and cards, with watching the flow and ebb of the river, and now and then a stroll out, keep us well employed."

image caption Austen's works have been adapted many times - Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in 1995...

image copyright AP Photo/ Focus Features/Alex Bailey image caption and in 2005 starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet

Her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh wrote in A Memoir of Jane Austen that she was "successful in everything that she attempted with her fingers".

"Her performances with cup-and-ball were marvellous.

"The one used at Chawton was an easy one, and she has been known to catch it on the point above an hundred times in succession, till her hand was weary."

Austen, who lived most of her life in Hampshire, is one of English literature's most celebrated authors.