In a remarkably successful auction of post-World War II and contemporary art, 39 paintings,

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drawings and three-dimensional works sold on Tuesday at Christie’s for $74.15 million. The total nearly matched the middle estimate and only seven lots failed to find takers.

The enthusiastic response elicited by works of every possible description was reminiscent of pre-recession days.

The auction began with a small “Untitled” sketch on paper board signed by Robert Rauschenberg in 1961. Only about 11.5 by 10 inches, or 29.2 by 26 centimetres, its small size and its support did not make it the kind of work that usually sells easily. Estimated to be worth $100,000 to $150,000 (plus the 25 per cent sale charge), it shot up to a stupendous $938,500.

An even more difficult work followed. Philip Guston’s “Untitled” sketch, painted in black ink on paper, is neither spectacular nor even colorful. This did not stop it from climbing to $542,500.

Then came the first of the important lots in the session. “Dancers on a Plane,” painted by Jasper Johns in 1980 or ’81, is a geometrical composition in which the human figures that inspired it can only be made out after prolonged scrutiny. Very different from the American painter’s earlier work of the 1960s and ’70s that commanded huge prices in the past, the picture carried a $1.5 million to $2 million estimate. Determined competition sent the “Dancers on a Plane” leaping to an impressive $4.33 million.

At that point, the room energised by Christopher Burge’s brilliant auctioneering style, seemed willing to bid on anything that came up. A severe sketch reduced to a few random lines in metallic paint on a printed sheet of paper, done by Rauschenberg in 1956, could easily have faltered in a less optimistic atmosphere. Instead, Rauschenberg’s sketch rose to $230,500, exceeding by half the high estimate.

Two equally difficult Rauschenbergs followed. One, a panel in clay, wire, nails and wood was “conceived in 1953 [and] realised in 1992,” according to the catalog. To the layman’s eye, the panel looked like dried mud lifted out of a plowed field after a drought. Burge wisely allowed it to sell for $98,500 — less than half the low estimate.

The next work signed by Rauschenberg, dated 1951, was almost as forbidding. Black oil paint is thickly applied on paper. The sheet was later laid down on canvas. A crumpled effect is contrived. This spartan work of art titled “No. 1” realised a miraculous $962,500.

The sale was on track. For the next 20 minutes, it rolled on, propelled by a seemingly unstoppable yearning for works painted decades ago during the first phase of the New York school, and occasionally, too, for much more recent works. Thus, a perfect spoof of a “Large Vase of Flowers” in polychrome wood executed by Jeff Koons in 1991 in an edition of three plus the artist’s proof matched the middle estimate as it rose to $5.68 million.

Immediately after, a very early bronze and steel sculpture by David Smith, executed in 1946, realised $1.42 million, far above the high estimate.