The author calculates lower bounds for the ground state energy of the linear antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbour interactions. From these lower bounds new upper bounds are derived. Several approximations of the ground state energy given in the literature are compared with these upper and lower bounds. It is found that the best approximation is given by extrapolation from finite cyclic chains. This extrapolation, however, is restricted to certain values of the relative strength of the interactions. Here he extrapolates the ground state energy from finite open chains where no such restriction occurs.