A TREASURE trove of seven paintings by the four leading Scottish Colourists are expected to fetch nearly £1.5 million when they are auctioned next month.

The paintings, described as "one of the most important groups of works to come to the market for many years", will be sold at Christie's in London on June 25.

The Scottish Colourists, whose post-impressionist work had a significant influence on Scottish art and culture, exhibited in the 1920s and 1930s. It comprised Samuel Peploe, George Leslie Hunter, JD Fergusson and Francis Cadell.

The most expensive work for sale is Peploe's, Dish With Apples, Ginger Jar, Brown Crock, Bottle and Chair, painted in 1918. It is expected to fetch between £300,000 and £500,000.

Experts at Christie's said the work was painted during what was arguably the most accomplished period of Peploe's career, describing it as a "tour de force of still-life painting which exemplifies Peploe at his very best".

Cassis, another of Peploe's pieces, will also go under the hammer and is expected to be sold for between £120,000 and £180,000.

Peploe's 1920s work White Sands, Iona, is estimated to be sold for between £60,000 and £80,000. He painted the piece while he was in Iona with Francis Cadell, who had persuaded him to join him on a trip there. Cadell was the first of the Colourists to visit Iona, in 1913.

He made repeated trips there, often spending entire summers in the western Hebrides in retreat from the hubbub of life in Edinburgh.