Geneva Bible sells for £20k in Belfast auction

The 400-year-old Geneva Bible sold for £20,000 on Tuesday

A 400-year-old Bible taken to the New World by the founder of a Massachusetts town has sold for £20,000 at an east Belfast auction.

It sold above its £5,000 to £10,000 valuation by Bloomfield Auctions on Tuesday.

Printed in 1615, it was taken to what is now the United States by Elizabeth Pole in 1633.

The Geneva Bible was the first mechanically printed, mass-produced Bible available to the public.

It was first published in 1560 - half a century before the King James Bible.

The Bible sold as part of a private collection from a gentleman's residence and was one of 389 lots that went under the hammer.

Other items up for auction included an 1853 watercolour painting by Victorian artist Thomas Sidney Cooper which sold for £3,800.

An oil painting by the same artist, from 1895, also sold for £8,000.

Bloomfield Auctions managing director, Karl Bennett, said the Geneva Bible had received interest from bidders in the United States as well as the United Kingdom and the sellers were "absolutely delighted".

There were six bids for the item overall, across internet, telephone and commission bids.

"I'm pleased for my vendors," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme.

"I don't think they rated it for its importance.

"They just thought it was a general Bible, so I think it'll be an absolute treat for them.

Mr Bennett would not say who had bought the item, but he revealed it had gone to a private collection.

The Bible was owned by Elizabeth Pole who travelled to what is now the United States in 1633

The Bible was owned by Elizabeth Pole, who travelled with her brother on the Speedwell to the Plymouth Colony.

Originally from Devon, she went on to found the town of Taunton in Massachusetts and is believed to be the first woman to establish a town in North America.

The copy was printed by Robert Baker, printer to Elizabeth I and James I and VI.

It was presented to Elizabeth's father, Sir William Pole, by the Archbishop of Canterbury in recognition of his services to the church and the poor of Devon.

When Elizabeth died the Bible was returned to her family in Devon and it remained in the possession of the Pole-Carew family until the mid-20th century when it was sold to a collector from Northern Ireland.