A PAIR of knickers once belonging to Adolf Hitler's wife were sold for £2,900 at a Malvern auction house.

The lilac undergarments with lace trim which bore Eva Braun's monogram went under the hammer at Philip Serrell's auction house in Malvern.

Interest in the undergarments was so fervent that it managed to eclipse its original estimated value of £400 at the auction house in Barnard's Green Road.

A private collector based in the UK also bought two items of her jewellery and a handful of silver items including an original lipstick in an engraved Italian case.

All items made well above their estimated auction values however the highest price of the collection was paid for the undergarments which were found in the underground storage rooms below the Platterhof.

Another star turn at Philip Serrell's winter sale was a 16th Century Gujarat mother of pearl bowl.

Recognised by the auctioneer as an important item, further research uncovered its age and origin.

The bowl was made in one of the mother-of-pearl workshops of Gujarat in western India.

During the late 16th to early 17th Century, Gujarati mother-of-pearl articles were being made for local consumption as well as for different export markets.

Nine telephone bidders and several online collectors from Asia, Europe and America eagerly contested the lot which had the pre-sale estimate of £12,000 to £15,000.

However it eclipsed its valuation with a European collector buying the bowl for £77,000.

Also sold was a Scandinavian drinking vessel estimated at £60-£80 which sold for £980 and an 18th Century four fold wallet which reached £920.