A few casualties among the top lots caused the sale total to fall just short of the £4.1m-6.2m pre-sale estimate at £3,823,650. However, a busy saleroom in Bond Street and high number of trade and private bidders resulted in 88 per cent of the 242 lots finding homes, with 78 per cent sold by value.
As predicted, the star lot was Sophie Anderson's No walk today, which sold for £890,000, above its £600,000-800,000 estimate, to a man in the room bidding on behalf of an anonymous buyer on the phone.
Making up the top three were two more archetypal Victorian oils, both bought by a European collector on the phone - Sir John Everett Millais and Rebecca Solomon's Christ in the house of his parents going for £510,000 (estimate £300,000-500,000) and William Dyce's Welsh landscape with two women knitting, realising £450,000 (estimate £200,000-300,000).
