Silver for Entertaining is a comprehensive, well-illustrated guide to one of the most important collections of 18th-century silver in Europe.

The guide extends to nearly a thousand individual pieces of the highest quality, style and exuberance of form. These pieces have survived virtually intact, along with extensive and previously untapped archival evidence of their commissioning and use. The book also provides new information on the diplomatic, political and court appointments of its principal patron, George William Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol (1721-75).

The finest London makers of the time are represented, including Paul de Lamerie, Paul Crespin and, in particular, Frederick Kandler. It also contains a significant quantity of continental pieces, commissioned contemporaneously whilst Lord Bristol was in Turin. The Earl's silver, of the latest French fashions and of opulent extent, was a critical tool in his armoury. It was in part by maintaining a sufficient state of 'magnificence' there, and in Madrid, that he could hold the diplomatic ground for Britain during the Seven Years War.

The book analyses the silver from stylistic and technical perspectives and uses them to illuminate the patronage, fashion and social history of the period, casting new light on the Herveys, one of England's most famous and eccentric aristocratic families.

James Rothwell studied art history at Warwick University and gained a Master's Degree at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has worked for the National Trust since 1995 and is the organisation's adviser on silver, carrying out extensive research on the collections and guiding displays, interpretation and acquisitions. He has published numerous articles on the subject and is the co-author of Country House Silver from Dunham Massey (2006). In collaboration with the Goldsmiths' Company he has overseen a ground-breaking series of exhibitions of works by contemporary silversmiths in National Trust houses.