The most expensive lot was the Constable-Maxwell cage cup that eclipsed its own world record for a piece of glass, selling on the telephone for £2.4m to one of the sale's three major bidders, paddle no.7004, and underbid in the room by London dealer Oliver Forge.
But also setting an auction record for a Pre-Columbian work was this unusually large Tairona gold figural pendant of an alligator deity (pictured right) dating to c.1000-1500AD and measuring 5 1/4in (13cm) high. Given that the market for such works is predominantly US-based, the last time this pendant was auctioned it fetched a premium-inclusive US$563,500 at Sotheby's New York in 1997. Here it sold to an American-speaking private collector for £480,000 against pre-sale hopes of £100,000-150,000. The same room bidder secured around one third of the sale, including five of the top ten lots. The auction boasted a 100 per cent selling rate by lot and totalled £5,261,300.
