AMERICAN TV star Jon Stewart received hundreds of gifts over the years from celebrities he grilled on his late night chat show, but not even he would have expected the bizarre present given to him by Nicola Sturgeon.
When the first minister appeared last year on The Daily Show, which Stewart presented until Trevor Noah took over last September, she gave him a rubber duck dressed in tartan and playing the bagpipes.
The 10cm-high piper duck is sold by Historic Scotland for £5.99 and was one of a number of gifts taken to New York by the first minister for her official visit in June last year.
She also gave Stewart an Edinburgh Shortbread House costing £3.45, a pocket edition of Rabbie Burns’s work (£4.79) and a set of Royal Stewart mugs (£19.99) in recognition of the ancient clan her host comes from.
The gifts seemed to work as Sturgeon emerged with her reputation enhanced from her verbal sparring with Stewart on Comedy Central’s hugely influential satirical news show.
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The ducks were just two of the 88 gifts handed out to foreign dignitaries, business leaders and members of the public by Sturgeon during her first year in office.
Confidential documents obtained under freedom of information laws show that the most expensive of her gifts was a £171.44 quaich and whisky set given in July last year to Dai Zhikang, one of China’s richest men with a net worth of about £1bn .
The cheapest gift she gave out was the shortbread gift for Stewart.
While Sturgeon has given presents to dignitaries and foreign officials, she has also made sure that others further down the chain have been rewarded too. During her US trip she gave cufflinks and a Harris Tweed wallet to each of her drivers in Washington and New York.
Alex Salmond, her predecessor, also used to give presents to drivers on his foreign trips. According to documents just released, Salmond also gave pocket-sized Rabbie Burns collections to two unnamed cabaret performers in New York, and Ryder Cup towels as gifts to caddies at Round Hill Golf Club in Connecticut.
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A Scottish government spokesman said: “Scottish ministers give gifts which relate directly to Scotland: showcasing our country and the best of our nation’s talent, produce and contribution to the wider world.”