A brass desk set inscribed AH and used by Adolf Hitler in the signing of the Munich Pact, which preceded World War II, is expected to fetch at least half a million dollars at auction next week in the US.

The ceremonial desk set including ink wells and the Nazi crest of the eagle and swastika, goes on sale December 8 and 9 at Alexander Autographs in Stamford, Connecticut, said Andreas Kornfeld, with the auctioneers.

The massively constructed set, which the auction house believes may have been designed by Hitler himself, is estimated to sell for between $500,000 and $600,000. More than 1,100 other historical artefacts will be in the auction.

The authenticity of the item does not appear to be under debate.

Historic news photos show Hitler, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and France’s Premier Edouard Daladier gathered at the desk during the signing of the pact on September 30, 1938.

The Munich Pact ceded the Sudetenland, a heavily ethnic-German part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany and was meant to appease Hitler’s ambitions. Mr Chamberlain told Britain he had achieved “peace in our time”.

But the pact instead encouraged Hitler, opening the floodgates to Germany’s invasion of Poland and the triggering of global slaughter the following year. The ultimate fate of the desk also told the story of how the war concluded.

US Army Lieutenant John L. McConn, Jr, was guarding Hitler’s private office in Munich in the Spring of 1945 when he found the pieces in the basement, where they’d been stored for safety, along with jewel-encrusted pistols, a huge gold and ruby ring, and looted art.

“As did every other G.I., Liet McConn wanted to return home with a good war souvenir,” the auctioneers said. “McConn claimed it, crated it himself, and sent it home to his father in Texas with as much postage as he could fit on the box.”