Miniatures are under-appreciated and undervalued with collectors able to buy museum-quality miniature paintings for under £10,000 (€12,700), which is rare for any form of collectible, says an Irish expert.

"At the moment you can buy museum-quality miniatures for a reasonable amount of money," said Dr Paul Caffrey, author of Treasures to Hold: Irish and English Miniatures 1650- 1850 from the National Gallery of Ireland Collection.

"For under £10,000 you can buy a museum-quality piece and that's pretty rare in any other form of collecting. You're not going to get much in the way of a piece of furniture or oil painting or piece of jewellery for that money in terms of quality."

Miniatures, being small and portable, are easy to house.

He believes they are "at the moment, under-appreciated and, generally speaking, undervalued given the quality that's available. I think it's an eminently collectable field and I think people should think about collecting them.

"I don't have any axe to grind. I don't have a collection. I don't have any commercial interest in it.

"I just think it's an interesting thing for people to get into."

A lecturer in the history of art and design at the National College of Art and Design, he says there are a lot of collectors in Ireland and abroad who have accumulated many miniatures.

"The most popular miniatures are portraits of beautiful people. They're usually very well painted. They're looking at the technique, the quality of the technical virtuosity of the miniatures."

Watercolour on ivory or enamel painting is very difficult technically to execute. Collectors look at the quality of the painting and whether it is set for instance in rubies or diamonds. They are often worn and have an intrinsic value as jewelled objects as well as portraits or images.

"So that's what the collector is looking for - something that looks attractive and is beautifully produced. That's what attracts the eye."

Some collectors choose miniatures by individual artists or favourite enamellists. In Ireland, people tend to collect work by Irish miniaturists.

There were about 170 recorded Irish miniaturists working mostly in the 18th and early 19th centuries so there's a wide choice from which to collect. Images of the leaders of 1798 or of Daniel O'Connell are very popular. Napoleon was often painted in France and miniatures depicting him are very collectable.

There was an important collection of actors and actresses, which were often painted as tokens of affection, such as the miniature of actress Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) in the National Gallery of Ireland. People at that time also collected actresses' hair, kept in lockets at the back of the miniatures.

On valuations, the auction houses have people skilled in valuing miniatures. Says Dr Caffrey: "In Dublin, the best place to go would be either a gallery like the Gorry Gallery in [Molesworth Street]. They deal in miniatures quite a lot. They would be good at valuing them from an artistic point of view in terms of the quality of the image."

He also recommends the Silver Shop in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre whose proprietor, Mr Ian Haslam, has "a huge collection of miniatures and he sells quite a lot as well.

"Obviously, if you had a very large and eminent collection one of the London auction houses like Christie's, Sotheby's or Bonhams & Brooks all have miniature experts, with Dr Bodo Hofstetter at Christie's regarded as a world authority."

jmarms@irish-times.ie