AN ANTIQUE library table commemorating Captain Cook has been sold in Australia for 420,000 Australian dollars- vastly exceeding its estimated price.

The Regency ceremonial table, crafted in London about 1810, came under the hammer at Goodmans Auctioneers in Sydney and was expected to fetch between $A200,000 (£72,000) and $A250,000 (£91,000).

With television cameras in the auction rooms, the table (pictured right) was sold to an unknown bidder.

It is inlaid with oak from Cook's last ship, the Resolution, and about 20 exotic woods from various countries, including Australia, New Zealand, India, Brazil and the Americas.

The table was put up for sale at Goodmans Auctioneers by a private collector in Sydney who acquired it from Alan Bond, the business tycoon whose empire foundered in the Nineties. It was previously owned by the London dealer, Monty Bernard, until it was sold by Bonhams in 1986.

The sale comes at a time when Captain Cook memorabilia has been fetching remarkable prices. A walking stick, said to be made from the spear that killed Cook recently went for nearly £150,000, more than ten times the estimate, despite international controversy over the way Cook died in Hawaii on St Valentine's day, 1779.

The managing director of the auctioneers which handled the sale is Tim Goodman. His partner Rachel Robinson used to live in Stokesley, not far from Cook's birthplace.