David Thomas's nautilus shell cup  is a jewel in which chased seaweed-like strands follow the curves of the shell and flow into the foot.
Gerald Benney's Cocunut Cup , with its textured gilded chevrons edging half a coconut, translates a traditional drinking vessel into a modernist idiom.
Shells and sea creatures are a constant source of fascination to silversmiths.
Nan Nan Liu's oyster shell box  is built up from soldered layers of metal to suggest growth rings while the flowing engraved patterns evoke the shell's relationship to ocean tides.
Junko Mori's Organism  is built up from hand-forged elements welded together to form a sea anemone as table sculpture.
Gerald Benney's witty, spiky crustaceans  made from folded origami-like silver will be instantly recognisable to anyone used to prawning.
Sheila McDonald's Shetland Bird vase  conveys the imagery and texture of a whole landscape: etched cliff faces with wheeling seabirds built up in layers of blackened and gilded enamel.
It is through such exquisite works in precious metal that The Nature of Silver takes us inside the imagination of makers and collectors.