The Comerford Collection, numbering over 300 miniatures, has been acquired over some forty years with the aim that is should represent all the periods during which this specialised painting art was widely practised. Although some of the portraits by artists other than those working in Britain and Ireland are included, the emphasis is on theses two centres.

The Collection is of an eclectic nature. Nonetheless, there is an emphasis on the group of Irish miniaturists who were placed among the leading names of the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; particular reference is made to John Comerford (c. 1770-1832), who was born in Kilkenny and built a prosperous practice without going beyond the boundaries of his native land, unlike many of his contemporaries.