SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) — A waistcoat owned by the British explorer credited with discovering Australia has been referred at an auction for $575,000 AUD ($438,380 USD) in Sydney on Sunday (March 26), not reaching the estimate of $800,000 ($609,920 USD) to $1.1 million ($838,640 USD).
The 250-year-old cream silk waistcoat apparently worn by Captain James Cook is a rare auction piece according to Julian Aalders of Aalders Auctions.
“This is a once in a lifetime find,” Aalders said. “There have been a few Captain Cook items come up but probably nothing as significant as this.”
Aalders explained the waistcoat was likely made some time during the 1770s, the same decade Cook landed in Australia, becoming the first European to reach the continent’s east coast and confirm its existence for the first time in 1770.
Cook’s discovery formed the basis of the British government’s decision, 18 years later, to solve a prison overpopulation crisis by sending convicts to Australia.
The waistcoat’s embroidered floral designs may be inspired by Cook’s travels around Australia, according to the auction house.
The auctioneer said Cook’s family kept the waistcoat in the United Kingdom after the explorer’s death from a knife wound in Hawaii in 1779, until 1835.
In 1912, it said, a British industrialist bought the waistcoat from an antique dealer, who gave it to a prominent Sydney pianist, Ruby Rich, who had the garment altered to fit a woman. Unfortunately, the auctioneer said, Rich wore the garment to many social gatherings and spilt wine on it.
In three Pacific voyages, Cook became the first European to circumnavigate New Zealand and the first to map Australia’s eastern coastline. He was stabbed with a metal dagger while trying to kidnap the native chief of Hawaii, according to official accounts.
The auctioneer didn’t disclose the identity of the seller.
