JFK underwear sold for $5,000

JFK's boxers were among the more intimate items up for auction

A pair of President John F Kennedy's Navy-issue boxer shorts sold for $5,000 at auction on Saturday, amid confusion over the price of more conventional artefacts.

JFK's World War II vintage underwear was part of a sale of personal, campaign and other items once belonging to President Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

The highlight of the sale was the former president's personal 1960 campaign notebook, containing 25 pages of reminders, notes and drafts of his speeches, but an online bidder thought her winning bid was for $2,250, not the $22,500 she actually bid.

Suzanne Vlach, proprietor of Seaview Antique Mall in Seaview, Washington, said auctioneers' rules appeared to confirm she would have to pay the higher price.

The sale was described as being on behalf of the last two individuals closely associated with the Kennedys, who were selling their own private collections - essentially, a last chance to buy a bit of the Kennedy glamour.

Engagement present

Most of the items on sale belonged to the former first lady's secretary, Mary Gallagher and her personal assistant, Providencia Paredes.

The item sold for the highest price was a leather attache case given as an engagement present from Mrs Kennedy to her future husband, fetching $32,500.

A last chance to buy a bit of the Kennedy glamour?

It had been put up for sale by the Museum of American Financial History.

Jackie Kennedy's lingerie, dresses, skirts and toiletries, and the gloves and handbag she wore to her husband's inaugural ball were on sale.

A privately-printed, limited-edition copy of Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address, inscribed and autographed, was also on offer, selling for $10,000.

Many of the former First Lady's personal effects were sold at a Sotheby's auction following her death in 1994.

The former president's secretary also sold her private collection of memorabilia a few years later.