LONDON.- Tonight Sotheby’s London Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale realised a total of £20,074,500/ $31,364,399/ €23,437,051, comfortably within the pre-sale estimate of £17.6 – 24.2 million. The top lot of the sale was a pair of paintings by Johann Zoffany – the most important works by the artist to appear on the market in recent years – The Garden at Hampton House, with Mr and Mrs David Garrick taking tea and The Shakespeare Temple at Hampton House, which fetched £6,761,250/$10,563,777/ €7,893,784 (pre-sale est. £6-8 million). A further sale highlight was Jan Havicksz Steen’s masterpiece An elegant company in an interior with figures playing cards at a table, which was sold for £4,875,250 /$7,588,967/€5,670,857 (est. £4.5-6 million) and established a new record at auction