This January the National Museum of Scotland is hosting the largest, most dazzling display of Scottish silver ever seen.

For the first time Silver: Made in Scotland will bring together over 350 pieces spanning seven centuries, from a communal drinking cup linked with Robert the Bruce to a teapot made for Billy Connolly.

The sparkling, star-studded exhibition will look at the glittering tradition of silversmithing and the way in which silver has symbolised wealth, power, high status and success throughout the ages. It will showcase a magnificent array of silver including trophies, candlesticks, ceremonial maces and communion cups.

Highlights will include:
• A 17th century suit made of silver thread
• A metre-high solid silver model of the Scott Monument
• Silver of the Stars: the first Scottish showing of contemporary silver designed for celebrities including Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor and Lulu.
• Every surviving piece of the very earliest Scottish hallmarked silver
• A selection from the Millennium Collection designed for Bute House
• The first known coin minted for a Scottish king

Silver: Made in Scotland, held in association with the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh, highlights the 550th anniversary of hallmarking in Scotland. Like gold, silver in its pure form is too soft for most practical purposes, and must be alloyed with another metal, usually copper. A hallmark guarantees the level of the silver in the alloy, and is essentially the earliest form of consumer protection in the world.

George Dalgleish, Principal Curator of Scottish History, National Museums Scotland, said: “Few pieces of early silver survive because they were often melted down and remade to suit the fashions of the day, or to be converted into hard currency. We are delighted to have succeeded in bringing together all the known surviving Scottish hallmarked domestic silver made before 1660, including all nine surviving mazers (communal drinking cups).”

The shimmering finale to Silver: Made in Scotland is the first Scottish showing of Silver of the Stars- a unique pairing of Scotland’s finest silversmiths with 10 world-famous celebrities. The result of these collaborations is a collection of spectacular drinking vessels that range from the whimsical to the downright decadent.

Together Nicola Benedetti and silversmith Roger Millar have conjured up a quirky hot chocolate pot and mugs from which Nicola dreams of sipping her favourite concoction amidst the ski slopes and mountain peaks of the Dolomites, while designer Alexander McQueen imagines partaking of the Bohemian drinking rites associated with absinthe as he encourages Cate Blanchett to sip from his gothic goblet in the bedroom of his Parisian home.

Other celebrities who have divulged their fantasy drinking encounters for the project include Robbie Coltrane, Sharleen Spiteri and Sir Cameron Mackintosh.

The exhibition will run from 25 January – 27 April 2008, from 10am – 5pm daily.