NEW YORK: Christie's on Friday said it sold at auction a book that contains an annotated copy of the US Constitution belonging to George Washington, the first US president, for nearly $10 million.

After an intense bidding war with an unidentified party, the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, charged with the preservation of Washington's residence just outside the US capital, purchased the book.

The manuscript sold for $9.82 million, more than three times the asking price of $2 to $3 million, Christie's said.

The 106-page book is bound in white leather and was printed for Washington in 1789. The US founding father signed the document's first page.

The transcript of the Constitution features several parentheses and notes on the margins.

“It's an exciting day. We are thrilled to be able to bring this extraordinary book back to Mount Vernon where it belongs,” Association spokesperson Ann Bookout told reporters.

The book was at Mount Vernon after the president's death in 1799, and remained there for some 50 years until it was auctioned off in 1876.

The manuscript was again auctioned in 1976 to collector Richard Dietrich, whose inheritors again put the book on the auction block.—AFP