Emperor Toewan Soesoehoenan of Soerakarta by Hugo Vilfred Pedersen – £12,000 at Bonhams.
His tour of what was then known as the Dutch East Indies provided the illustrations for his 1902 publication Durch den Indischen Archipel.
A number of his surviving works depict characters and personalities at the Surakarta Palace in Java. One of them was an oil on canvas portrait of an Indonesian prince titled Emperor Toewan Soesoehoenan of Soerakarta.
It had last sold for £800 at Christie’s in 2001 but attracted rather more attention as part of the Bonhams’ Travel & Exploration sale in London on September 20. Estimated at £1000-1500, it brought £12,000.
