A very rare Portrait of an African Soldier sold for £375,250, more than double its top estimate at Bonhams Islamic and Indian sale in London yesterday (Tuesday 30 March). The work by an anonymous Persian artist is believed to be the first portrait of an African figure in Persian oil painting and one of the earliest artistic records of the African community that is still present in the Gulf region. It had been estimated at £100,000-150,000.

The painting, which was executed in Isfahan between 1680-90, shows a young African man dressed as a soldier and is rich in detail with typically Persian weapons and equipment, and European-influenced uniform and hat. While the sitter is not identified, he is likely to have been a real-life soldier, a musketeer or tofangchi, a division of the Persian army primarily composed of foreign mercenaries.

Oliver White, Bonhams Head of Islamic and Indian Art said, "This rare, perhaps unique portrayal of an African in the Safavid army, is of great art historical and sociological importance and I am not surprised that it attracted such keen bidding nor achieved such a high price."

Other highlights of the sale include:

• A diamond-set forehead pendant (chand-tikka) from the collection of Maharani Jindan Kaur (1817-63), wife of Maharajah Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), made in the Punjab, probably Lahore, in the first half of the 19th century. The only surviving widow of Ranjit Singh, Jindan Kaur led spirited resistance to the encroachment of the British into the Punjab but was eventually forced to surrender. More than 600 pieces of her jewellery from the legendary treasury of Lahore were confiscated, and she was imprisoned before escaping to Nepal in 1848. The chand-tikka was almost certainly among the jewellery restored to back to Maharani Jindan Kaur by the British authorities when she agreed to live in London with her son, Duleep Singh. It was sold by Garrads of Regent Street, London after the Maharani's death in 1863. Sold for £131,500 (estimate: £90,000-120,000).

• Horses by Maqbool Fida Husain (Indian, 1913-2011). Over a career that straddled multiple decades, he employed his modified Cubist style to depict themes and topics that include the Ramayana, Mother Teresa, the Mahabharata, the British Raj and motifs of Indian urban and rural life. The depiction of horses has been one the key elements in Husain's oeuvre throughout his career, and here the various horses are portrayed with gaping mouths and wide staring eyes. The muted colours of browns and whites draws the viewer in to the work and catapults them into the frenzied sprinting of the horses. Sold for £62,750 (estimate: £50,000-80,000).