Michele Giovanni Marieschi's cover-lot "The Courtyard of the Doge's Palace, Venice, with the Giant's Staircase, Saint Mark's Basilica beyond" earned £2,169,250 (est. £2–3 million).

Christie’s first sale to combine Old Master paintings and drawings and 19th-century art had a decided buzz about it. A standing-room-only crowd more than filled the room for the evening sale on July 7 and stayed for the entire two-hour auction. The event was a strong success, beating the pre-sale estimate of £15 million ($24.1 million) to realize a total of £20,549,650 ($32,840,444). Of the 63 lots offered, 48 sold, for a sell-through rate of 91 percent by value and 76 percent by lot.

Despite the new dual concentration, the sale did lean rather heavily toward Old Masters, with 51 of the 63 lots in that category, including all of the top 10 lots; the later offerings, including drawings by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Samuel Palmer and a watercolor by J.M.W. Turner, tended more toward the low or mid-range.

The evening’s top seller was The Madonna and Child in a landscape with Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John the Baptist (1516), a signed and dated picture by the Florentine painter Fra Bartolommeo, whose paintings rarely appear at auction. It came from the collection of Brenda, Lady Cook and once formed a part of the renowned Cook Collection at the Doughty House in Richmond. Estimated to bring £2–3 million, it sold over the telephone for £2,169,250 (with buyer’s premium). Although the hammer price was slightly below estimate at £1.9 million, it was still a world auction record for the artist.

Two other auction records were also set last night: A still-life painting by 17th-century Dutch artist Willem Claesz. Heda sold over the telephone for £1,385,250 (est. £300–500,000), and a half-length portrait of a young man by 16th-century Florentine artist Giuliano Bugiardini was the object of hot competition before selling, over the telephone, for £825,250 (est. £150–250,000)

The Bugiardini was one of four lots that sold considerably above expectations. A much-admired group portrait of Sir James and Lady Hodges and their family by Nathaniel Dance made £445,250 (est. £80–120,000). Five bidders vied for 18th-century Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard’s painting of an elegantly dressed woman in a Turkish costume, which eventually made £667,250 (est. £150–250,000), and a view of Venice by 18th-century artist Luca Carlevaris fetched £505,250 (est. £150–250,000). “What the paintings had in common is that they were all new and fresh to the market,” said Nicholas Hall, co-head, with Richard Knight, of Christie’s Old Masters and 19th-century art department. “We also gave them sensible estimates,” he added, “which always stimulates interest.”

Pieter Brueghel II’s painting The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness sold for £1,497,250, within its pre-sale estimate of £1–1.5 million. The auction’s cover lot, and one of its highest-estimated paintings, however, sold slightly below pre-sale expectations, at least before buyer’s premium: Michele Giovanni Marieschi’s view of the courtyard of the Doge’s Palace, described by Christie’s as “a masterpiece,” went to New York dealer Otto Naumann for a hammer price of £1.9 million (est. £2–3 million) — £2,169,250 with premium.

Christie’s reported a number of new, conscientious bidders. “They were not people putting a toe in the water,” said Knight, “but people who looked at the market, thought about it, and bid substantially.” According to Christie’s specialists, there was “solid bidding and buying” from Russians, South Americans, Europeans, and British and American collectors. “We had more people at the view this year than in the past five years,” added Paul Raison, head of Christie’s Old Masters department in London.