Exhibition celebrates city's links with metalworking

The exhibition features more than 100 objects made from different types of steel, silver and gold

A new exhibition celebrates Sheffield's long association with metalworking.

Show Your Metal, at the Millennium Gallery, features more than 100 objects made from different types of steel, silver and gold.

The display coincides with the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire.

The guild was established by Parliamentary Act in 1624 and aims to maintain the standards and quality of Sheffield-manufactured cutlery and steel products.

Emma Paragreen, curator of Metalwork and Industry at Sheffield Museums, said the city's connection with metal goes back even further than the founding of the guild.

"People associate Sheffield with steel, maybe stainless steel, but actually if you go right back to the 12th Century here in Sheffield they were making early knives and 'thwittles', as they were called."

Many of the pieces on display have been loaned to the museum for the free exhibition, including Cornelia Parker’s large hanging installation Rorschach (Endless Column III).

"She uses pieces of tableware, silver or silver-plated, and they get steamrollered by a 250-tonne press," Ms Paragreen explained.

"We’ve got a sequence of squashed vessels and utensils: a ladle, a candelabra, a tea tray and a two-handled cup."

Emma Paragreen, from Sheffield Museums, said the city's links with metalworking date back to at least the 12th Century

Some of the exhibits are more than one hundred years old - including specimens created by Harry Brearley, who is believed to have created the world’s first stainless steel in the city in 1913.

There are also contemporary pieces including Acanthus VII by award-winning silversmith Shinta Nakajima, a Japanese-born artisan living and working in Sheffield.

The exhibition is open to the public until 29 September.

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