THE first major Irish picture auction of the autumn will be held in the James Adam salesrooms next Wednesday afternoon, and it promises to be an important occasion given the excitement of the market last spring. It will be interesting to see whether the kind of prices achieved earlier this year are maintained by such pictures as a small Jack B. Yeats canvas, called Through The Streets To The Hills.

A View of Dublin's Fitzwilliam Street, on the corner of which the artist lived for many years, it carries an estimate of £35,000-£45,000. There are no less than six examples of Paul Henry's work in this auction, including The Village By The Lake - formerly owned by Count John McCormack - which has an unusually powerful use of green in the foreground (estimate £25,000-£3 5,000), and The Potato Harvest. This is a powerful portrayal of life on Achill Island earlier this century, and it could make the day's top price as it carries an estimate of £50,000-£70,000.

Grace Henry is represented by just one small oil on paper, the charming Chateau at Champlay (£1,500-£2,000). Roderic O'Conor's Reclining Nude (£7,000-£9,000) is another painting that is likely to stir wide interest, along with Walter Osborne's A View of Brittany (£8,000-£10,000).

Other pictures worth noting include: An Irish Glen by James Arthur O'Connor (£10,000-£14,000); A View Of Ross Castle and A View Of The Lakes Killarney, both by William Sadler II (£4,000-£6,000 and £1,500-£1,800 respectively); Maurice MacGonigal's Old Woman, Clifden, Connemara (£4,000-£6,000); Richard Thomas Moynan's portrait of his sister (£10,000-£15,000); and two watercolour views by William Leech (£3,000-£5,000 and £2,500-£4,000).