"This richly illustrated book tells the story of art in Belfast from its early beginnings in the mid-eighteenth century to the opening is 1888 of the town's first rate-supported art gallery, a suite of rooms in the Free Public Library in Royal Avenue (known today as the Central Reference Library). Exhaustive use of primary sources charts the foundation of a number of exhibiting societies, all of which filed; also, the establishment of the town's first official art school, the School of Design, in 1849, which likewise foundered. Nevertheless, despite this lack of support for local artistic ventures, the town maintained a flourishing art market through a variety of auction houses and salerooms."--Jacket.