A sketch book by Maltese artist Count Amadeo Preziosi yesterday fetched almost £380,000 at an auction in central London smashing a previous estimate by £60,000.

The self-titled book, Souvenir De Mon Dernier Voyage, was taken on a grand tour of Europe by the count who made the sketches and is dated 1875.

Giles Peppiatt, head of the travel and topographical pictures department at Bonhams Auctioneers, where it was auctioned, heaped praise on the book. He said that "to find one picture by Count Preziosi would be a pleasure but to find no fewer than 81 of his works in his own personal sketchbook is astounding".

The watercolours are of scenes across Europe, including remarkable pictures of the Grand Harbour, Senglea and ladies dressed in the Għonella with a church in the background.

Bonhams held the Travel and Exploration sale at their New Bond Street auction house and priced the sketch book to sell anywhere between £320,000 and £500,000. The book sold for £378,400.

Count Preziosi, was born into a wealthy aristocratic Maltese family. His father disliked his interest in the arts causing the painter to leave for Constantinople. After having studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1840, he left the city in 1842, travelling to Italy and then on to Istanbul. He married a Turkish-Greek woman and the couple had four children. He died following a hunting accident and was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Yesilköy, Istanbul.