Vintage poster that once hung alongside the dance floor at Annabel's nightclub has sold for a record £193,750

A vintage poster that once hung alongside the dance floor at Annabel's nightclub has sold for a record £193,750 as an auction of the iconic venue's entire contents raised almost £4 million - four times the estimate.

The framed lithograph by Andreas Farkas called Modiano, was estimated to fetch up to £1,500, but such was the mood of the night.

As every fixture and fitting, from carpets and urinals to a DJ booth, were sold off, the hushed auction room at Christie’s bore witness to some frenetic bidding that went way beyond the estimated prices.

The Farkas sale prince was a record price for a vintage poster ever sold at Christie’s and a world record for the artist at auction.

Many items sold for more than 20 times their estimated price included five mahogany bar stools, snapped up for £22,500 and an 84cm long scale model of an Italian “Riva” speedboat that went for £10,625. 

A series of 28 lithograph prints by Paul Colin, titled Le Tumulte Noir and designed for an event celebrating black culture in Paris in 1927, were sold for £118,750 while a pencil drawing of Tommy Cooper by John Thomas Young Gilroy went for £23,750 rather than the estimated £800.

A patinated bronze and animal print DJ booth sold for £18,750 and a towering Buddha figure was sold for £137,500, almost seven times the estimated auction price. The 1.3m painted stucco figure, said to have been coveted by singer Rita Ora, was among 265 lots up for grabs from the iconic private members club, opened by Robin Birley in 1963.

The last photograph of the interior of Annabel’s before it closed its doors in February and relocated down the road, taken by Christian Voigt, sold for £21,250.

A fully set table for eight, including glasses, cutlery, place settings and a toast rack, expected to sell for up to £1,500, was snapped up for £11,875.

Wine coolers, velvet sofas, table lamps and bar stools were sold at vastly inflated prices as scores of telephone and online bidders competed with a packed auction house and the club’s regulars watching and bidding via a live stream from the club itself.

Negro Sitting, an oil painting by Glyn Warren Philpot, sold for £368,750,  three times it’s estimated price, while a pen and pencil drawing by Henry Mayo Bateman called Honour was satisfied in the season in retrospect, went for £32,500, well above its £4,000 estimate and a world record for the artist at auction.

Three other Bateman cartoons, The Millionaire, Why We Halted and The Post Impressionist Exhibition, sold together for £25,000, ten times above its estimate.

The Batemans made up the majority of the pictures dotted around the main bar and entrance, and will therefore be familiar to most visitors.

Portrait of a Lady by Augustus John, said to remind club members of all the subject had witnessed as she gazed upon them; sold for £27,500.

A doorman’s woollen coat, recognisable to every member who had stepped through the club’s doors, was estimated to sell for between £50 and £80 but went for £1,875.

Auctioneer Will Porter joked: “‘No regrets’, that’s the moral of Annabel’s,” as he brought the hammer down at £242,750 for Study of a Grey Horse, a painting by Sir Alfred James Munnings that had been expected to go for up to £25,000.

The sale of its contents by Richard Caring, the multimillionaire restaurateur who bought the club as part of a £90m deal in 2007,  generated a wealthy of interest from its well-heeled, nostalgic patrons.

Liz Hurley is said to have set her sights on its iconic red velvet sofas, while Nick Grimshaw was keen to snap up the oak planks of the dance floor on which he once watched Grace Jones hula hoop.

Mr Birley, who died in 2007 two months after the sale, once said that decorating Annabel’s was “an intuitive thing” with pieces of art bought in a “haphazard” way. Caring has claimed he would likely “extremely upset” about the sale.

The auction was expected to raise significantly more than the estimated £1million, which Caring has vowed to use to "purchase further extraordinary works of art for the new Annabel's and other restaurants for thousands to enjoy".