November, 19, 2007 - March, 9, 2008

Precious items of the exhibition reveal the splendour of the Palace of Versailles and Sun King's court. In 1689 all the silver pieces of work, executed for Louis XIV at the Royal Gobelins factory, were melted down. The display consists of exhibits from the largest world's collections of Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden, museums of Dresden, Paris etc. The Moscow Kremlin Museums represent six silver items executed by the European makers as ambassadorial gifts to the Russian Tsars.

Precious interior utensils were widely used for decorating palaces and showrooms, chambers and cathedrals. Silver chased plates with engraved mythological and biblical scenes were turning the halls of the Kremlin palaces into shining galleries full of tables, seating, mirrors, chandeliers, torcheres and candelabra, vases and perfume burners. For example wash-tubs, made of precious metals and engraved by skillful European makers, were granted to Russian Tsars to be mounted on the wall as wonders of delicate workmanship.