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.”. Neil Williams believes the proposals accepted by his union are “almost identical” to those rejected as totally unacceptable by the FBU only last week.

The threat of fresh national fire strikes loomed again last night after activists overwhelmingly rejected a pay offer accepted by their leaders.
In a humiliating rebuff to Andy Gilchrist, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), representatives from all over Britain threw out the latest and “final” proposals tabled by management and endorsed by the Government.Mr Gilchrist had warned delegates at an emotional emergency meeting that rejection would be “foolhardy” when British troops were about to go into battle in Iraq.In a closed meeting in Brighton of 250 FBU activists, Mr Gilchrist said: “I am worried that we would be the first casualty of war and be smashed as a union This is not a time to tear this union apart. Trust the members to decide.”Delegates severely undermined Mr Gilchrist’s authority by rejecting a 16 per cent pay offer over three years with only a few brigades backing him. Mick Shergold, regional secretary of the union in London, which proposed the motion rejecting the deal, called the package “completely unacceptable”.But he said a decision by Mr Gilchrist and the union’s executive to call off a strike due to begin at 6pm today still held and that a consultation process would take place in the next two weeks. A national conference would decide the next moves.”I am aware that a considerable number of our members are uncomfortable about taking action during a war, despite the fact that an overwhelming majority are opposed to it,” Mr Shergold said.The vast majority of delegates rejected a proposal by the national executive to accept the offer and endorsed the London’s region’s motion.Mr Gilchrist denied that the vote was a personal defeat that undermined his position. “I don’t see it as humiliating, it simply shows that this is a truly democratic and representative union. If the membership decides the offer is unacceptable no doubt they will be asking us to set further strike dates.

In our union we are quite used to heated disputes and people expressing their point of view.”Supporting the leadership, delegates from the West Midlands said the union must take a “reality check” and consider the grave context of the dispute. A minority of activists said ministers were unlikely to reconsider the package and industrial action would split the union.While an offer last week said that sweeping changes to working practices could be decided by local managers, the proposals made on Tuesday said any new measures could only be introduced after fire authorities had sought consensus.The FBU executive also said a fresh document from management preserved the status of the national agreement.Demands and offersThe claim: Last summer the FBU submitted a claim for a 40 per cent rise which would put firefighters on £30,000 a year. The FBU sought to replace an automatic pay formula and wanted pay parity for part-time firefighters and control room staff.Last week’s offer: The proposal involved a 16 per cent increase over three years with new working practices. The document suggested part-time firefighters should be paid the same hourly rate as their full-time colleagues and proposed a working party to determine the wages of control room staff.The new offer: The proposals on pay remain the same. Union leaders believe, however, that important safeguards over the modernisation of the fire service and firefighters’ terms and conditions have been included. They also stress that consensus would be sought on new working practices.