A signed copy of Adolf Hitler's infamous manifesto "Mein Kampf" recently sold for £21,000, or about $35,000 in American funds. While the controversial book has been banned in Germany since the end of the Second World War, it remains in publication in other countries where the ban is not in place.

The copy in question was autographed by the notorious Nazi leader and was believed to have been given to a fellow inmate at the Bavarian jail where Hitler wrote the book while serving a four-year prison sentence in the mid-1920's. The pre-publication second edition was sold at auction by Mullock's Auctioneers.

Shown above is the signed first edition of "Mein Kampf" which sold for £23,800 at an auction in London in 2005.

[Source: Telegraph]

In the world of rare bibles a typo is worth a lot. Bible errors have led some bibles to be known for their mistakes such as the so-called wicked bible which has a omitted a crucial "not" in one of the commandments, turning it into "thou shalt commit adultery." Other biblical typos are far less inflammatory but even the mistake of a minor word or two can make a certain Bible printing distinctive. Upcoming auctions of rare and important Bibles at Swann Galleries this fall offer several of these expensive curiosities.

Swann Galleries is holding two sales one on September 17 and one on October 20 that will feature Bibles from the collection of Mel and Julie Meadows. The Meadows collection will be auctioned off in two parts, the American examples in September and English Bibles and other religious texts in October. The Meadows collected important editions of the Bible in English. Among their treasures was the 1781-82 Aitken Bible, the first complete Bible in English printed in America and the only Bible ever authorized by Congress. Fewer than 100 copies are known to exist and it is estimated at $40,000 to $60,000.

But about those typographical errors, one Bible, the 1613-11 second edition of the King James version is known as the "She" Bible because of the reading "she" instead of "he" in Ruth 3:15. It is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. Another Bible with a typographical variation is the "Vinegar Bible," Oxford, 1717-16, which contains the word "vinegar" instead of "vineyard" in Luke 20, among other misprints. It is estimated at $3,000 to $5,000. More information is available on the sales through the Swann Galleries website.

Swann Galleries' April 2 auction of fine books will include a copy of one of the most famous versions of the Haggadah, the Jewish religious text that tells the story of Passover. The Szyk Haggadah was illustrated by Arthur Szyk in Poland in the 1930s and is famous for the beauty and detail of its pictures. Last year, a new reprinting of the text was announced at a hefty price of $15,000 each. The version Swann Galleries is selling is one of 125 copies on vellum, signed by Szyk and editor Cecil Roth and is in the original gilt-pictorial blue morocco binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, London, 1939, It is estimated at $15,000 to $25,000.

This is just part of a sale that coincides with the New York Antiquarian Book Fair and includes works on cards and the occult from the collection of Stuart R. Kaplan founder of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., a leading publisher of tarot decks and card games. The sale will also auction off a copy of Golden Cockerel Press Four Gospels, illustrated by Eric Gill, one of only twelve printed on vellum, bound in white pigskin by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, Waltham Saint Lawrence, 1931 which is estimated at $40,000 to $50,000. A set of David Roberts's The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia, first edition in book form in the issue with hand-colored proofs before letters, 6 volumes in the original bindings, London, 1842-49 is likely to be one of the top lots at $80,000 to $120,000. The books will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries at 104 East 25th Street in New York City on March 28 and March 30 to April 1.

With global warming proceeding briskly along, a collected polar-themed library might be even more of a precious relic. On May 24 Swann Galleries in New York will auction off 160 items from the Polar Library of Dr. John M. Levinson, a past President of the Explorers Club, who has assembled an collection of works on Arctic and Antarctic exploration. One of the star lots in the auction is one of only 65 extant copies of the first book published in Antarctica, Ernest Shackleton's Aurora Australis, 1908. This copy of the book is known as the "Veal" copy because boards from a packing crate containing veal were used to create its cover. This book is inscribed to expedition member George Buckley and signed by Shackleton and others and estimated to sell for $50,000 to $75,000. Other lots include other books by Shackleton, a complete set of first editions of all three of James Cook's Voyages, in nine volumes, copies of The South Polar Times, the first Antarctic newspaper, edited by Shackleton, Louis Charles Bernacchi and Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Charles Swaine's rare Account of a Voyage of Discovery of a North-West Passage from 1748, a set of first editions of each of William E. Parry's four Voyages, and artifacts such as a message buoy used on the 1901-02 Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition to the North Pole via Franz Josef Land and silver and china from various expeditions.