Bonham’s doesn’t release overall sales statistics or provide pre-sale estimates for the entire sale. Nonetheless, there were some strong bids for many of the individual items in the 168-lot, £1.9m sale today.

• Aivazovsky’s “The Morning Catch”, reached £378,400 from an estimate of £150,000 to £250,000.

• Nikolai Fechin’s “Portrait of a young girl”, estimated at between £55,000-85,000, sold at £168,000.

• A porcelain plate from the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg, made during Alexander II’s period, achieved nine times its estimate of £10,000 – £12,000 with the final hammer price at £98,400.

• A diamond-set lady-in-waiting cypher, a hinged pendant bearing the rose-cut diamond set initial ‘M’ for Emepress Maria Alexandrovna below an Imperial crown also reached £78,000.

• An oil on canvas portrayal by Frantz Alexeevich Roubaud (Russian, 1856-1928) of The charge before the gates of Khiva, was bid to £57,600.