Four goblets believed to have been owned by Adolf Hitler have sold at auction for £3,000.

The engraved goblets, edged in gold and etched with the Nazi eagle, a swastika and the initials A.H., are thought to have been used by the Nazi leader in his Berlin bunker. The cups were expected to sell for around £8,000 at a Specialist International Militaria sale in Towcester, Northants last night, but were bought by a buyer in Sweden for £3,000.

But auctioneer Jonathan Humbert, of JPHumbert Auctioneers, said the price was still reasonable for an item with no written proof of its background.

He said: “Anything Nazi can be a little bit awkward to place and although we had an immense amount of worldwide publicity, people were very cagey about expressing pre-sale interest.

“They sold to someone from Sweden who bid via the internet.

“They have no paperwork, no written provenance, it was really based on the hearsay from the vendor in America.”

He said the goblets belonged to the vendor’s late father, a highly respected militaria dealer.

He said the man apparently also once owned one of Hitler’s swords, believed to have sold for one million dollars. “He had the sword and his father only owned the best and it was his understanding that his father had bought them as having come from the Berlin bunker.

“We were really pleased to be able to place them at all, £3,000 is a very respectable price for four glasses with no substantive written provenance.”