Elvis bible sold at UK auction

A bible which once belonged to Elvis Presley has sold for £59,000 ($94,000) at auction in Greater Manchester.

The 1,600 page book was given to the singer by his Uncle Vester and Aunt Clettes for his first Christmas at his Graceland home in 1957.

It contains annotations by Presley, who died on 16 August 1977 aged 42.

A pair of the singer's unwashed pants also on sale at the Omega Auctions in Stockport were not sold as bids failed to reach the reserve price.

Bids for the stained underwear reached £5,000 but the reserve price was £7,000.

The bible was among more than 100 lots of Elvis memorabilia on sale.

It was sold on behalf of a British Elvis collector who is selling a quarter of his collection.

Karen Fairweather, from the auctioneers, said: "It was a really exciting atmosphere in the room, we had 300 people and there was bidding online and on the telephone across the world.

"You could hear a pin drop when it sold for that price.

"There were three rival bidders on the phone and once it got over £20,000 each bid was taking a while, because they each had a price in mind for the bible and they were thinking about it.

"There was a round of applause when the hammer went down. It was incredible."

The winning telephone bidder, who did not want to be identified, was an American man based in the UK.

Source: BBC News