It is interesting to see Whyte's branching out from selling old documents, coins and bank notes into fine art and to see its forthcoming sale of Irish and Continental art on June 26th featuring some important work by Yeats, Le Brocquy and the Irish American artist Sir James Jebusa Shannon.

A fashionable portrait painter in the late 1890s and early 1900s, Shannon painted in the style of 18th century aristocratic portraiture, like his fellow American portrait painter John Singer Sargent. His portrait of Mrs Field Montague carries an estimate of £75,000 to £100,000.

A large Yeats oil, Hope, painted in 1946, is expected to sell for between £130,000 and £180,000, while a small Yeats oil, Below the Golden Falls, from 1936, is estimated at £30,000 to £30,000. The sale will also include works by Markey Robinson, with estimates for his earlier work on offer running as high as £15,000.