The silver collection has representative holdings of English silver and German silver gilt from 18th century and but in recent years this has been complemented with an extensive collection of late 20th century Australian metalwork and a broad collection of 20th century European silver.

The European 20th century silver collection commences with the work of Christopher Dresser, continues with art nouveau represented by Paul Follot’s tea service and pieces by Georg Jensen, art deco by Jean Puiforcat’s work and Scandinavian modernism by the work of Sigvard Bernadotte, Henning Koppel and Soren Georg Jensen. Of particular significance is a small but representative collection of English silver from the 1960s and 1970s which featured textured surfaces. This characteristic was a reaction to the plain surfaces of the Scandinavian silver that dominated design at that time. Complementing this range of hollow ware is a range of 20th century cutlery patterns by various makers showing some of the rich experimentation that occurred with cutlery design over the century.

In 2003 Hamilton Art Gallery accepted the metal work portion of the Victorian State Craft Collection on long term loan. This collection, formed between 1979 and 1991, consisted of some 105 works consisting of both jewellery and hollowware. Metalwork continues to be a core collecting area for the Gallery.