ABSTRACT
In 1854 the art historian, Dr Gustav Waagen published a three-volume set titled Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., &c., &c. This chapter details all the treasures of art within Great Britain, often including those not then on public display. John Connellan Deane, a member of the Society of Arts and a commissioner for the 1853 Dublin Exhibition, read the book and approached the owners of the artworks listed by Waagen to ask them to loan their items for a grand exhibition in Manchester. One of the most obvious consequences and proofs of that coherence between Fine and Industrial Art, which has ever existed, but which it was reserved to the Manchester Exhibition to first worthily develop by placing the choicest examples of both in juxtaposition, is to be observed in the historical fact that the highest perfection in almost all branches has been invariably simultaneously reached.
