Gallery
Balthasar van der Ast, Still Life with Shells, ca. 1640. Oil on panel. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2173 (OK). From the estate of Mr and Mrs Dr Ir. G.L.P. Philips-van der Willigen / Photography: Studio Tromp.
My father kept a speckled conch
By two bronze bookends of ships in sail,
And as I listened its cold teeth seethed
With voices of that ambiguous sea…
–Sylvia Plath, “On the Decline of Oracles”
Robert E. Coker, Finished buttons of several sizes and patterns, 1921. Plate XXXVII-3, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, vol. 36, 1917-1918, Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1921. Freshwater and Marine Image Bank, University of Washington Libraries.
Robert E. Coker, Illustrating economical use of shells of various sizes, 1921. Plate XLVI-1, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, vol. 36, 1917-1918, Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1921. Freshwater and Marine Image Bank, University of Washington Libraries.
Indian, Gujarat, Covered container, 18th–19th century. Green Turban shell and copper. 7 × 6 × 4 3/4 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Kenneth Jay Lane, 2013, 2018.211.5. www.metmuseum.org.
He had never felt anything so smooth—had never imagined something could possess such deep polish. He asked, nearly whispering: "Who made this?"
–Anthony Doerr, “The Shell Collector”
Tsimshian, Native American, Headdress frontlet, ca. 1820–40. Wood, abalone shell, pigment, and nails. 7 × 6 × 2 3/4 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of Native American Art, Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 2019, 2019.456.22. www.metmuseum.org.
Detail, Christian Frederick Martin, Guitar, ca. 1837. Spruce, rosewood, cedar, ebony, pearl, abalone, ivory. 36 5/8 × 11 9/16 × 3 1/4 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Peter Szego, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2017, 2017.174. www.metmuseum.org.
Cambodian, Khmer, Angkor Period,12th-13th Century, Conch Shell with a Figure of Hevajra, 1100s. Shell and bronze; (overall): 13 3/4 in. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1977.176.
Michelle Erickson, Dragon Junk Teapot, 2006, Press-molded agateware made of porcelain and copper porcelain clay; wheel-thrown, life-cast porcelain and indigenous clays with underglaze cobalt decoration. Yale University Art Gallery, Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund, 2007.90.1.
Hans Sloane’s nautilus shell carved by Johannes Belkien in the late 1600s. C021.7733 © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London. CC BY 4.0, Attribution 4.0 International.
I don’t know where I should like to live unless in a nautilus shell.
–Marianne Moore
A small building covered in sea shells in Hamnavoe on the island of West Burra off Shetland Mainland, 2019. UrbanImages / Alamy.
German, possibly Middle Rhine, Calvary, ca. 1450. 4 3/4 in. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund, 1968.240.
Mayan, Pendant with Figure and Double-Headed Crocodilian, 8th century. Shell. 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 x 1/2 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Albert J. Grant and Monique Grant Joint Revocable Trust, 2014, 2014.244.5. www.metmuseum.org.
Izaak Enschedé, issued by Centrale Bank van Aruba 2012. Paper. The British Museum, 2016,4102.1 © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
African, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuba-style maker, Hat (Kalyeem), possibly early 1900s. Raffia, glass beads, cowrie shells, cloth (including wool), thread, and copper alloy. (overall): 11 7/16 x 9 1/16 x 9 1/16 in. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1998.29
Lanterns made of shells, Divisoria market, Manila, Philippines, 2016. Michael Wels / Alamy.
Fijian blowing a "Davui" (conch shell) trumpet, 2015. parkerphotography / Alamy.
Hawaiian, Bait, 18th century. Wood and cowrie shell. The British Museum, Oc,VAN.338. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.
George Pratt, George E. Madeley, and Charles Tilt, The Conchologist, ca. 1831. Hand-colored lithograph. Governor Prints, Science Museum Group, 2002-613. © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.
American, Figure (Woman), 1760-1850. Earthenware, shell, glass, wood, paint, and mica. 10 x 6 in. (diam.). Winterthur Museum; Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont (1959.1596), Courtesy Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library.
Sailor's Valentine. Wood, metal, paper, cotton, glass, and shell. © Mystic Seaport Museum, 1952.2107.
Peruvian, Shell with inlaid feline, 100 BCE–700 CE. Spondylus shell with shell, stone, and gold inlay; overall: 7.5 x 7.4 cm (2 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, In memory of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Humphreys, gift of their daughter Helen, 1950.567.
Hindu devotees perform holy bath of Lord Krishna at Sanwaliya Seth temple during Jal Jhulni Ekadashi festival, Beawar, Rajasthan, India, 2020. Sumit Saraswat / Alamy Live News
Shell holy water font, Cathédrale Saint Pierre Saintes, 2014. Gavin Rodgers / Alamy.
Thomas de Keyser, Portrait of a Man with a Shell, ca. 1625–26. Oil on wood. 9 3/8 x 6 3/4 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, From the Collection of Rita and Frits Markus, Bequest of Rita Markus, 2005, 2005.331.5. www.metmuseum.org.
© Ejatu Shaw, Close up friends decorating young black man's locs with shells and jewels. stock.adobe.com.
Unknown, Spondylus Shell with Lidded Jade Bowl, 600–900 CE, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA
I have seen dry land made from the deep; and, far away from ocean, sea-shells strewn, and on the mountain-tops old anchors found.
–Ovid, Metamorphoses
Little by little
the ocean
empties its pockets
–Mary Oliver
Kitagawa Utamaro, Gifts from the Ebb-Tide, from The Shell Book (Shiohi no tsuto), 1789. Polychrome woodblock printed book; ink and color on paper. 10 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1918, JIB47. www.metmuseum.org.
Susan Collis, The oyster’s our world, 2004. Mother of pearl, found ladder. Copyright Susan Collis. Courtesy of Seventeen, London.
Susan Collis, Rock bottom riser, 2007. Mother of pearl, gemstones. Mother of pearl found ladder. Copyright Susan Collis. Courtesy of Seventeen, London.
George Cruikshank, Three Courses and a Dessert, 1830; Illustration to William Clarke's anthology. Woodcut. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
…four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat —
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
–Lewis Carroll, “The Walrus and the Carpenter”
Unknown maker, Tiger Cowrie Shell Snuffbox, ca. 1833. Shell and silver. Gift of Mrs. Francis White, from the Collection of Mrs. Miles White, Jr., Baltimore Museum of Art, 1973.76.268.
Album of seaweed specimens, in scallop shell binding, Great Britain, mid-19th century, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund. Image Courtesy YCBA.
Iranian, Beads, ca. 9th century BCE. Shell and stone. 29.92 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Mrs. Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff Gift, 1961, 61.100.146. www.metmuseum.org.
Iranian, Necklace, ca. 9th century BCE. Shell. 23 1/4 × 11/16 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Mrs. Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff Gift, 1961, 61.100.95. www.metmuseum.org.
Sir William Crookes, X-ray photographs of two shells. Science Museum Group Collection, 1983-12. © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
How many dreams the leftward oriented shell, or one that did not conform to the rotation of its species, would inspire!
–Gaston Bachelard, Poetics of Space
Backpacks with pilgrims' shells, Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Glicia, Spain. liaksandr Mazurkevich / Alamy.
John Margolies, Shell, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 2001. Color transparency. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by John Margolies, [LC-DIG-mrg-05346].
Man cracking open an oyster with a mallet. Old Visuals / Alamy.
Honoré Daumier, L'amateur d'huitres, 1836. Hand-colored lithograph. Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, 1943.3.9369. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
