In his determination to prove what became known as the theory of "unsupported transit," Stanford turned to Muybridge, who was already renowned for his landscape photography, particularly his soaring pictures of Yosemite.
Bidders sent the picture soaring above the middle estimate to a huge £19.68 million.
Well, picture soaring golden columns amid fluffy white clouds — and, as Aunt Rita said, "This is just the foyer".
Plus, you never know when he will come soaring into the picture for an alley-oop layup.
Perhaps emboldened by its provenance (a museum in Bremen, Germany), bidders sent the picture soaring to a surprising $13.24 million, again more than half above its high estimate.
One of the attractions in these sales immune from hype is that even a well-known signature appended to a beloved site will not necessarily send the picture soaring sky high.
In "Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa," the First Lady of Song (1917-96) is pictured soaring over Harlem with a winged Chick Webb, flying over the moon on an aerial trumpet with Dizzy Gillespie, and floating over Paris, London and Moscow, with only her voice keeping her aloft.
This shows a picture of soaring demand for primary places in some areas, within a projected national increase in the number of primary-age pupils of 454,800.
Inside a shady tent in the middle of quake-hit Amatrice, a little girl hunches over a table, drawing a picture of the soaring mountains overlooking this small Italian town.
Outside the cathedral, tourists stopped to snap pictures of its soaring dome behind the improvised shantytown, while the protesters remained stoic.
