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Bidding battle for Constable sketches sets £350,000 record

Martin Hickman
Thursday 20 March 2003 01:00 GMT
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Three long-lost drawings by John Constable set a record for the artist when they sold at auction in London yesterday for £352,160 – almost seven times the combined estimate.

There was said to have been an "electric" atmosphere inside Sotheby's salesroom in Bond Street as two bidders competed with each other to acquire the pencil sketches.

Sotheby's said interest in the drawings had been intense because they were newly discovered, were by one of the 19th-century's greatest painters, and had a historically important subject – Lord Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory. They were found in Glasgow during a routine valuation at a family home.

The highest price was fetched by Bow View of HMS Victory in The Medway, which went for £216,160, more than 10 times its estimate of £15,000 to £20,000. A broadside view, with the same estimate, went for £95,200. A stern view with an estimate of £10,000 to £15,000 sold for £40,800.

A private buyer won the bidding for the bow view, in the process setting a record for a paper work by Constable.

Guy Peppiatt, head of watercolours at Sotheby's, said: "There were two people – one on the phone and one an agent – bidding and neither wanted to give up. It was a question of who was going to give up first. It must have gone on for five minutes. A lot of people were hanging around saying: 'Oh my God, what's going on?' "

Constable drew the works on a boat in one day in 1803 after seeing the Victory. But Constable's vessel got caught in a storm and, during the confusion, the artist left a number of his drawings behind. They were recovered within days and were later used in the preparation of Constable's watercolour, His Majesty's Ship Victory ... in the Memorable Battle of Trafalgar.

Sotheby's representative in Glasgow, Anthony Weld-Forester, discovered the drawings when he was asked to value art owned by a local family, who turned out to be descendants of Constable.

"I looked at some furniture and clocks, and at the end of the visit I noticed a little maritime picture," he said. "The family told me they had another three maritime drawings. The three drawings of the Victory were hanging in a rather dark corner of the sitting room. I was immediately convinced they were Constables."

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