CLEARING out a dusty old attic can often throw up the odd surprise.

But for one local restaurateur, helping her aunt get rid of some unwanted boxes has uncovered an extraordinary treasure trove of designer knitwear.

Karen Perschke, 51, is now planning to sell the hundreds of jumpers and other items she found in the German attic - including pieces by big names such as Jaeger, Aquascutum, Pringle and Bernat Klein - for up to £500 each.

She is still staggered that her aunt Eleanor Lange, who ran a store in Germany in the 1970s called MacKnits, had asked for the boxes to be thrown into a skip, thinking the stock would be ruined. The pair are now hoping that the classic knitwear, which was wrapped up in plastic when the shop closed around 1982, will help make them both a fortune.

Mrs Perschke said: "When I opened the first, second and then more boxes, I realised that my aunt was sitting on a gold mine of designer knitwear.

"It is perfectly preserved as new knitwear and silk - including some knitted in Shetland from Shetland wool.

"These are big names, and some of the knitwear is some of the earliest examples of names such as Hilary Rohde - which now sell at £500 each - Daks, Jaeger, Aquascutum and Pringle. They were made in very different ways in those days. Everything was crafted in Scotland by Scots, using Scots raw materials."

Mrs Perschke, who owns La Bagatelle on Brougham Place, has already sold one jumper on eBay for an undisclosed amount and organised a sale at her restaurant. She is now setting up an online version of MacKnits to sell the rest of the massive collection.

"The great bonus is that the designs and colours are coming back," she said. "We had two young girls, about 19 years old, doing a shoot for the website, and they loved the clothes."

Mrs Perschke has so far made a few return trips to Saarbrucken in south-west Germany, but she has only brought about half of the clothes back.

She said. "There are thousands and thousands of pieces, and it could take quite a while to sell them, but it will be nice to reopen the store, as I think my aunt was always a bit upset that it had to close down.

"I have no idea what the total value of the collection will be, but there are some unique pieces by big-name designers in there."

Edinburgh-based knitwear designer Belinda Robertson, who is known as "the Queen of Cashmere", said the collection sounded very special.

"If this is all original Scottish wool and cashmere, then it is very valuable, as Scottish knitwear is the best in the world, but production over the years has dropped off, and so there is much less of it now, particularly items hand-made in Scotland," she said.

"Famous names such as Pringle have been bought out and use different manufacturing techniques now, so original pieces will be very rare, and therefore highly sought after."