London  - A rare collection of early paintings by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler fetched more than 95,000 pounds (139,000 dollars) at auction in Britain Thursday.

The 13 pictures, including oil and water colours, were painted between 1908 and 1914, when the Nazi leader was in his 20s and hoping to become an artist, specialist auctioneers Mullock's said.

They included a self-portrait, signed with the initials A. H, which was bought for 10,000 pounds. It shows a man sitting on a stone bridge who appears to have Hitler's trademark side-parting.

Several of the other paintings - mainly landscapes - are signed A. Hitler.

The works were found by a British soldier in Essen, Germany, in 1945. The vendor, who bought the pieces from the man who found them, sold some of them years ago and discovered the remainder in his garage recently.

They went under the hammer at Ludlow Racecourse in Shropshire, in the west of England. The auction house said the sale had surpassed all expectations, exceeding by far the upper estimate for the total sale of between five and six thousand pounds.

"As works of art, they are hardly Picasso," said Richard Westwood-Brookes, the auction house's historical documents expert.

"But it's an opportunity of obtaining a piece of original art that was done by Hitler."(dpa)