A WORK of one of Britain's finest maritime artists, Montague Dawson, has sold for a record price for his works.

In his work The Action Between HMS Shannon and the USS Chesapeake June, 1803, pictured, Montague Dawson certainly captured the imagination of one anonymous American bidder.

It has been sold at Christie's auction house in New York for £273,258 - a world record for a Dawson.

Antiques experts had predicted the painting would sell for about $1,500 dollars but were stunned when it far exceeded that total to fetch $486,400 during the maritime-themed auction.

It is only one of a collection of nautical paintings by Dawson, who was brought up in Smuggler's Cove on Southampton Water and continued his career from his home in Milford on Sea.

His paintings of magnificent sailing ships, RN vessels, Southampton passenger liners and yachts racing through the waters of the Solent are considered to be the pinnacle of their type and are highly prized by collectors including the Queen, US Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson and even the Sultan of Morocco.

At the height of his career in the 1960s Dawson received about £100,000 a year, making him the second highest paid artist in the world - second only to Picasso.

A spokesman for Christie's in New York said: "Today's auction achieved the highest total ever for a Maritime sale at Christie's.

Dawson is a very highly sought-after artist and we are delighted to be able to claim a world record for one of his works."

Other top-sellers at the Christie's maritime sale included a second Dawson painting called The Fabled Tea Clipper Taeping Running in Light Winds, which sold for £222,921 and a nautical painting by James Edward Buttersworth which sold to the US trade for £94,382.