Mask

Shell with traces of blue paint

Snail Shell

Shell with Inlaid Feline

Conch Shell Trumpet

Top-Shell and Various Shells

Snuffbox

Shell Inscribed with the Cartouche of Senwosret I

Casket

Turret Shell

Nautilus pompilius shell from the wreck of the Dutch East India ship Witte Leeuw

Inlay

Shell engraved with winged female deity, sphinxes, and lotus plants

Liturgical Spoon

Ceremonial basket adorned with cowrie shells

Carved Conch with Lakshmi-Narayana

Engraved Conch Shell

Shell Game (Kaiawase) Set

Shell, possibly a Bursa rubeta, from the wreck of the Dutch East India ship Witte Leeuw

Nautilus Cup

Seal Amulet in the Shape of a Cowry Shell

Conch Shell Trumpet Effigy

Covered container

Oesterschelp, beschilderd met een bloemtak

Oesterschelp met zeefiguren en een rots met planten

Schelpen

Stoomschip op zee met schelpen op het strand

Schelpen en vissen

Nautilusschelp van parelmoer gesneden met bloemenranken

Nautilusbeker

Unidentified mythological subject

Pearl Oyster Shell with Perseus and Andromeda

Shell

Shell fragment

Shell Fragment

Fragment of a shell with a sculpted female head

Conch Shell

Box of Cowrie Shells

Ceramic Whistle in the Form of a Shell

Spouted bowl or oil lamp

Design for a Plate with Thetis on a Shell in a Medallion Bordered by Sea Monsters

Carved Conch

Ritual conch shell

Gifts of the Ebb Tide (The Shell Book) (Shiohi no tsuto) 潮干のつと(都登)

Shell Flower Arrangement

“She pressed both hands to the parabolic sides of the shell. She closed her eyes and smiled—it felt like being parenthesized.” —Karen Russell, The City of Shells A common enough item on eBay these days are small figurines of poker players mid-game made almost entirely out of shells. The players’ faces might be made from cowries, their arms and hands augers, the game table a scallop, and precious little shells for chips. Centuries earlier, shells were actually traded as currency: wampum in the Americas or cowry shells in pre-Imperial China, for example. From money to a kitschy souvenir representing money, the time that has passed and the things that have changed are parenthesized by the lasting primacy of the shell. As a deeply efficient container for past and present, the shell continues to captivate as a memento originis. It endures as a physical link to the ocean from whence we came, and to the romance of what we can not readily see. In keeping with its liminal and littoral identity, the shell has also long been used for calling upon unseen mythological and spiritual worlds, as with the Khmer Buddhist ritual conch shell or the engraved Mississippian conch. Certain shell artifacts evidence a colonial drive away from the spiritual in favor of the scientific, decorative, or the touristic. However they retain their ability to enchant. See the examples of the ornate 17th century Dutch nautilus cup, for example, or an 18th century Victorian box. Most dizzying is the journey of the shells recovered from the wreck of the Dutch East India ship Witte Leeuw. These shells are natural specimens that were colonial trade goods. Loaded as cargo on a ship sunk during wartime, the shells are now resurrected from the ocean as artifacts of a shipwreck. The use of shells ranges from raw material and ritual object to specimen, aesthetic motif, and souvenir. This collection surveys the shell’s consistent presence as a contextual shapeshifter that slips between the worlds of spirituality and commodification.

Gods and Goods: Shell, Spirit, Souvenir

Gods and Goods: Shell, Spirit, Souvenir

About this Collection

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