A collection of handwritten notes, poems and sketches by the late John Lennon has smashed auction estimates after going under the hammer in New York.

A rhyme called The Fat Budgie, valued at $35,000 (£21,875), sold for $143,000 (£89,375), while a manuscript titled I Sat Belonely was snapped up for $137,000 (£85,625), four times its estimate.

Meanwhile, a piece named Neville Club, which had been expected to sell for around $12,000 (£7,500), proved to be another huge draw, fetching $100,000 (£62,500) following a bidding war.

Most of the documents were produced by Lennon in connection with In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works, two books of poetry, drawings and musings which he released in 1964 and 1965.

The items in the Sotheby's auction, which took place on Wednesday (04Jun14), previously belonged to British publisher Tom Maschler. It was the largest private collection of Lennon's work to ever go on sale.