Cecily Brown's "I Will Not Paint Any More Boring Leaves (2)," 2004, sold for $844,000.

LONDON— The contemporary art market had a successful test run at Phillips de Pury Monday evening, delivering £11,243,350 ($16,923,234) for the 27 out of 31 lots that sold. That compared to the low end of the £10-14.4 million pre-sale estimate, before commissions. The hammer tally was £9,480,000 ($15,073,200).

Phillips fared well in its sale-through rate with just 13 percent unsold by lot and 5.5 percent by value. Two artist records were set during the 40-minute-long sale, in which two lots fetched over a million pounds and three exceeded one million dollars. Even better, tonight's sale more than doubled the house's puny £3,963,450 ($5,968,956) result in London last June, when the auction suffered through a 47 percent buy-in rate by lot.

Much of that improvement was aided by third-party guarantees for the more expensive offerings, and by the posh Mayfair location at the Claridge's Hotel ballroom, a favorite spot for the über-rich when they visit London. The setting, with great sight lines for viewing and excellent acoustics — thanks in part to thick carpeting — contrasted sharply to the boutique firm's industrial-style salesroom and vast viewing space on Howick Place in Victoria, about a ten-minute black cab ride from Mayfair. Apparently that distance kept some high-end collectors from ever getting there.

Phillips continued its track record of showcasing younger artists, especially those with red-hot market potential like Jacob Kassay, whose abstract painting of silver deposit and string on canvas, "Untitled" from 2009, sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £145,250 ($232,000) against a £50-70,000 estimate. It was lower than Kassay's evening auction debut at Phillips de Pury in New York, where another untitled work sold for a sizzling $290,500 in May.

Of the more established youngbloods, Urs Fischer, was also in full effect with his readymade-like 2007 sculpture "Thank You Fuck You," a cast aluminum and acrylic paint contraption consisting of a washing machine, ladder, and pillow — from an edition of two plus one artist proof — that sold to another telephone bidder for £657,250 ($1,020,690) (est. £600-800,000).

On the record front, Ugo Rondinone's "Get Up Girl a Sun Is Running the World," a lifelike 2006 sculpture of cast aluminum and white enamel tree, sold to another telephone for £541,250 ($715,500). The piece, from an edition of three plus one artist's proof, vanquished the previous high set at the same house last June when "Air/Get/Into/Ever/Nothing" sold for £361,250 ($576,000).

Also, Beatriz Milhazes's "O Moderno," a 118 1/2-by-58-inch patterned abstraction from 2002, sold to the telephone for £713,250 ($1,109,730). Like the Fischer, it carried a so-called third-party guarantee, meaning, presumably, that a party outside the auction house guaranteed a minimum price for the painting.

But even with such supposedly ironclad deals in place the unforeseen can happen, as was the case with the withdrawal of the major Cindy Sherman lot "Untitled Film Still #4" from 1977 (est. £250-350,000). Apparently, both Phillips and the seller decided to take the 30-by-40-inch work out of sale and cancel the guarantee after concluding, according to Phillips' contemporary head Michael McGinnis, that the reception might be underwhelming given that another version sold at Art Baselfrom Metro Pictures' stand.

Recent Whitney Museum of American Art mid-career retrospective recipient Glenn Ligon, however, proved a market draw, with his coal-dust-dark 1997 painting "Stranger in the Village #8" selling to London investment banker Amir Shariat for £253,250 ($404,000) on an estimate of £150-250,000.

"There was competition for good material," said Shariat as he exited the salesroom, "and it was a very good result for a Phillips evening sale, even considering that some of the estimates were quite punchy."

Works from the mid-2000s were abundant as Ilya Kabakov's caricatural, Soviet-style "A Solemn Painting," a 2005 painting with red bunting and artist frame, sold to New York dealer Asher Edelmanfor £241,250 ($385,000) against a £200-300,000 estimate. Buttonholed moments after the sale, Edelman reserved his comments regarding the health of the market, saying, "You won't know until tomorrow evening [at Christie's], because there wasn't much merchandise here to test the market."

Ugo Rondinone's "Get Up Girl a Sun Is Running the World," 2006, sold for $715,500.

Still, Cecily Brown's 80-by-4 ¼-inch 2004 oil "I Will Not Paint Anymore Boring Leaves (2)" — definitely a telling title — sold to New York private dealer David Nisinson for £529,250 ($844,000) on a £350-450,000 estimate. "I didn't steal it," said Nisinson, commenting on the price, "and it wasn't a bad purchase price. I would have gone higher."

That sentiment is popular at Phillips, where works seem to hit the low estimate or lower, rather than jump past expectations.

Still, the gritty, tribal-art-influenced cover lot, Jean-Michel Basquiat's late "Self-Portrait" from 1985, a composition of acrylic, oil stick, crown cork, and bottle caps on wood, took top-lot honors when it sold to a telephone bidder for £2,057,250 ($3,246,690) on an estimate of £2-3 million. It too carried a third-party guarantee. It last sold at auction at Phillips de Pury New York in November 2003 for $647,500, making its latest price tag a rather hefty improvement in value.

"It's not the location, it's the material," observed market-maker Jose Mugrabi as the petite crowd of 150 or so spectators and bidders exited Claridge's. "The atmosphere was good and definitely, people are buying."

Mugrabi helped produce that good-times feeling, nabbing the huge and heavyweight Damien Hirst"Confession" from 2008, composed of butterflies and household paint, that sold for £690,850 ($1.1 million) against an £600-800,000 estimate. Mugrabi also underbid the last lot of the sale, George Condo's 2009 old-master takeoff "Don Diego," which sold to a telephone bidder for £205,250 ($327,000) on a £180-220,000 estimate.

"After Venice, after Basel, and a long spring of auctions in New York, there's still an appetite for contemporary art" said Michael McGinnis, worldwide head of Phillips' contemporary department, observed.

The evening action continues at Christie's on Tuesday.

Beatriz Milhaze's "O Moderno," 2002, sold for $1,109,730.

Urs Fischer's "Thank You Fuck You," 2007, sold for $1,020,690