Andy Warhol's Golden Shoe (Julie Andrews Shoe) was the headline lot of Christie's Contemporary Art day sale in London on February 12.

It sold for £722,500 ($1.1m), an increase of 140.8% on a £300,000 ($456,900) estimate.

Warhol produced the piece in 1956

The piece dates to 1956, a time when Warhol was just breaking through into the mainstream. It was one of 40 works showing various designs of shoes for celebrities. Others included Elvis Presley and Truman Capote.   

Warhol had been given several contracts earlier in his career illustrating shoe advertisements.

As Christie's puts it: "The young Julie Andrews was imagined by Warhol as a classical Cinderella-esque slipper, embellished with gold and silver trim - a reflection of the actress' alluring public image and a comment on Warhol's attraction to the glittering, fairytale land of celebrity."

Damien Hirst's Ipratropium Bromide was another highlight, achieving £542,500 ($826,770) - an increase of 56% on a valuation of £350,000 ($538,849).

The lot, executed between 2004 and 2011, is one of the artist's iconic spot paintings. He explained: "I just move colour around on its own. So that's what the spot paintings came from - to create that structure to do those colours...

"Mathematically, with the spot paintings, I probably discovered the most fundamentally important thing in any kind of art. Which is the harmony of where colour can exist on its own, interacting with other colours in a perfect format...The spot paintings are... just like a very exciting discovery, where you get this scientific formula that you add to this sort of mess."

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