It accounted for one quarter of the auction proceeds and was the most valuable lot in the sale, which grossed a useful $406,931.
This was despite the failure of some of picture punters to follow it through. Non-picture buyers may have different ideas about picture values and traditional paintings have been a regular feature of antique auctions and fairs since the auction market went heavily contemporary in the new millennium.
A pleasant enough work, highly evocative of the Melbourne port's feverish gold-based activity, the work had no special reason to be in that sale.
It was out there because it might be buried in the bustle of a major art sale, Sotheby' s Geoffrey Smith explained. Beside there is likely to be a lot of bustle at Sotheby's this year if the company adds the sale of the collection of the late Mary Fairfax to the Russell Crowe sale which it is holding on April 7.
The company is being tipped as the likely auctioneer for the Fairfax estate, which could even top the Russell Crowe sale.
Deutscher and Hackett sold some of the James Fairfax estate, but it is not noted for its jewellery expertise.
The break from custom in offering the sleeper in a design sale created some excitement because of the further inscription on the rear of the painting.
The inscription read signed dated and inscribed "Artist / Mr Cust / 1858"
A search in the usual channels including the National Library of Australia Trove site yielded no one of this name who could be readily identified as the artist.
But there was believed to have been a lot of money at around the $50,000 mark to secure the much discussed Cust.
A Sir Lionel Cust was a director of the National Portrait Gallery in London in later years, and was a major source in his writings on Marshall Claxton, an artist who came to Australia with lots of paintings and had mixed results selling them.
Sotheby's Melbourne specialist Fiona Hayward wrote an extended catalogue entry placing the subject in the context of Victoria's history. The discovery of gold at Ballarat necessitated the erection of the piers because of the large number of immigrants that followed.
"In late 1939 (sic) Captain Willbraham Liardet, the noted watercolourist of early Melbourne and his extended family arrived at Sandridge establishing the Pier Hotel, a mail service and subsequently a jetty."
Liardet had a pub in the vicinity, but his works have not sold for any mighty sums which might cause collectors to chase his work.
The artist responsible for the work had an understanding of artistic principles.
Australiana buffs said the pier was viewed from the wrong angle to be hugely interesting, as the view was from the pier showing a lot of boats. That potential buyer would have preferred to see the architecture of the pier.
There was therefore no sign of the railway that had arrived around 1854.
The provenance was given as UK private. One wonders if Sotheby's will share the identify this important piece of information.
The Hayward notes were not published online, Sotheby's evidently sensitive to its research being popular with cut and pasters.
The buyer, who was described as being in the room, clearly obtained a painting that will provide research opportunities.
The provenance, "Property from Private Collection, United Kingdom" and "acquired from the above" was not a great help.
It would be a shame if this information was lost, should Sotheby's have more information that it cannot share with future buyers for some reason or another.
The obvious buyer, if the painting is topographically important, is the State Library of Victoria, but the library insisted it has not purchased it.
Clearly, asHayward said, Cust was an unrecorded artist obviously capable of strong technical skill, and there can be little argument about that.
