THE biggest auction of the week ahead (with over 500 lots) looks like being that held by James Adam at its premises on St Stephen's Green, Dublin, next Wednesday. Divided into morning and afternoon sessions, the former, starting at 11 a.m., covers silver and plate, oil paintings, watercolours and prints.

Of the silver, probably the finest lot is a pair of mid 18th century sauceboats by John Pollock and William Skeen of London. Their plain, panelled bodies with wavy borders are raised on three hoof feet each and have C scroll handles. The pair is expected to make £1,200-£1,600. For the inveterate traveller, there is a 12 piece cased dressing table set, with tortoiseshell and silver plated mounts, and estimated at £150-£250.

Among the 100 plus pictures are a charming pair of small watercolours that depict coastal scenes in an almost Turneresque fashion by Myles Birkett Foster (estimate, £1,000-£1,500 for the two); a genre painting called The Quiet Smoke by Claude Pratt (£1,500-£2,000) and an oil of a pack of hounds by J.D. Guille (£600-£00).

However, the best price in this section should be made by a romantic canvas from John Haynes Williams. Entitled Day Dreams, it is expected to fetch £3,000-£4,000.

The afternoon's auction of furniture features a George III mahogany architect's table, with all its original accountrements still in place. Showing evidence of many years usage, this handsome piece carries an estimate of £3,000-£4,000. A lower price of £1,500-£2,000 is expected to be made by a rather unusual Edwardian double davenport desk in mahogany, in which one side is like a mirror image of the other.

A fine Regency brass inlaid rosewood rectangular folding top card table (estimate £3,500-£4,000), a Victorian mahogany rectangular bookcase with moulded cornice above a central twin glazed door cabinet (£3,000-£5,000) and a substantial late 19th century German walnut bookcase in elaborate neo Baroque style (£7,000-£8,000) are among the other pieces of furniture that are fancied to do particularly well.