Closing its year of activity with a strong showing, the James Adam saleroom is conducting an Irish art auction next Wednesday in conjunction with Bonhams & Brooks. Most of the familiar names are present, including Yeats, Leech, Dillon, O'Neill, Orpen, Lavery and Le Brocquy. The last of these features in a group of works coming from the collection of Mary and Pearse O'Malley, co-founders of Belfast's Lyric Players Theatre almost half a century ago.

The Le Brocquy, lot 56, is an unusual - and early - drawing of a man's head expected to make £6,000-£8,000, and the same group also includes an Anne Madden (lot 57, £1,000-£1,500), three Colin Middletons (lots 54,55 and 59, estimates between £1,500 and £8,000) and a Camille Souter (lot 60, £6,000-£8,000).

Since all the pictures in this collection are at least 30 years old, it will be particularly interesting to see how they now perform at auction. Some items are certain to do well, such as lots 61 and 62, a pair of works by Mainie Jellett; while the former is a substantial tempera composition and is therefore expected to fetch £30,000-£35,000, the latter is a small gouache of flowers and, accordingly, carries the much lower estimate of £1,000-£1,500.

Size is obviously also a factor in determining the value of a number of works by Letitia Hamilton appearing in this sale. Whereas two pairs of small marine views painted in oil on board (lots 67 and 69) are estimated at £4,000-£5,000, a larger and more finished oil of Roundstone harbour in Connemara by the same artist (lot 71) is expected to go for £10,000-£15,000. The auction is particularly interesting for the number of entries by lesser-known artists, such as lot 83, a charming oil of two children called Happy Moments by Thomas Bridgeford, a 19th century English-born painter who became a member of the RHA (£7,000-£10,000).

Lot 128 is a delightful example of the art of Beatrice, Lady Glenavy; Poet and Shepherdess, a highly-coloured oil, is expected to make £25,000-£35,000.

Just as fine in its way is lot 124, a study of The Old Beech Tree at Wingfield, Bray, Co Wicklow by William Crampton Gore (£8,000-£14,000). And lot 188 is an oil version by Daniel Maclise of his Dear Heart of My Country, which originally appeared as an illustration in the 1845 edition of Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies. The sale begins at 2.15 p.m.