£1.2m Peploe poised to smash auction records

• SJ Peploe's Still Life with Coffee Pot is being sold by Christie's at an auction of British art in May. Its estimated value is 800,000-1.2 million

But this classic early work by the Scottish Colourist Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) is poised to set a new record price for any Scottish painting at auction, knocking Jack Vettriano from the top spot.

Auctioneer Christie's has set an estimate of up to 1.2 million for the 63.5x84cm (25x33in) canvas when it goes under the hammer in May.

SJ Peploe's Still Life with Coffee Pot (1905) is described as a rare early work by the best known of the four Scottish Colourists - the others were John Duncan Fergusson, Francis Cadell and Leslie Hunter - whose early 20th century paintings have become increasingly popular with 21st century buyers.

It previously sold at auction for 87,000 in 1985, but 25 years later is predicted to smash the record for a Scottish painting set by Vettriano's The Singing Butler, sold for 744,500 in 2004.

"It's a masterpiece, and it's very rare for these early pictures to come up for sale," said Andre Zlattinger, Christie's new senior director for 20th Century British and Irish Art. "There's no Peploe like this that has recently made it to the market."

Both Christie's and recently Sotheby's have moved away from separate Scottish art sales, opting to sell them instead alongside other UK works. But quality artworks are commanding high prices, said Mr Zlattinger, and "they are top British international artists who have a huge following".

Sophisticated in its colours and composition, deceptively simple in style, the painting shows the influence of the French Impressionists, and demonstrates why the Colourists have become a benchmark for Scottish art, he said.

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"These pictures were painted primarily in Edinburgh, but the content and influence came from Paris," added Mr Zlattinger.

"It's an astonishing piece of work, at the peak of his early style where he was using this creamy paint," said Guy Peploe, the painter's grandson and director of the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh. "It's an incredible alla prima technique where you can't make a mistake, just sweep the paint in, painted in one application."

The coffee pot is still owned by his mother, Elizabeth Peploe, the artist's daughter-in-law. "It's a George II coffee pot, very handsome piece of silver. Not quite as shiny as it appears in the painting," he said.

Patrick Bourne, of the Fine Art Society in London, whose firm bought and sold the picture previously, said: "It is one of the very best Colourist pictures we ever had. It's a true test of the market. Later on, with the still lives that we see so often, they are much less considered, and there are more of them."

Other, less rare, later works by Peploe have fetched more than 500,000 in recent auctions.

While one art expert privately described Christie's 800,000-1.2m estimate for the Peploe as a "bold" figure - well above the record for a Colourist work - two Scottish art dealers said they expected the painting to meet its valuation. It will be offered with four later Peploes.

The canvas is being sold by a Northern England collector.