A SILK waistcoat said to have been worn by Captain Cook has failed to sell at auction in New Zealand.

The delicately embroidered waistcoat had been expected to sell for more than a million dollars when it was put up for auction at New Zealand-based auctioneers, Webb’s, at the end of last week.

But the waistcoat didn’t meet the reserve. Bidding stopped at $370,000, which came from a private American collector.

The waistcoat was believed to have been in the explorer’s family between 1770 and 1835 until they sold it to a London antiques dealer, where it was bought by Viscount Leverhulme at the beginning of the last century.

The viscount presented the historical artefact in 1912 to Dr Ruby Rich from Sydney, who had it altered to fit her and wore it to society gatherings. The waistcoat still has a faint wine stain to mark the fact.

The complex embroidery on the waistcoat, of sprigs of flowers and leaves, are said to be flowers discovered on Captain Cook’s voyages to the Pacific.

Webb’s managing director, Neil Campbell, said negotiations were taking place over the next few days over the future of the historical piece of clothing.

Captain Cook grew up in the North Yorkshire villages of Great Ayton and Staithes and he trained in Whitby, where his four ships Endeavour, Resolution, Adventure and Discovery were built.