The Third National Shell Show

Last week on Postcards we caught up with Barney and Sally Williams a couple of avid beachcombers who are constantly exploring the beautiful coastline of Coffin Bay National Park. And for many of us combing the beaches is standard practice in summer, but for Wayne Rumball it's become a way of life all year round. Both he and Helen Tassie, work as volunteers in the South Australian Museum's Division of Natural Sciences and their passion is mallocology, the study of shells and the creatures that live in them. The Museum has a comprehensive collection from throughout Australia and overseas. Many are interesting in their own rite and others for what's been done to them, like these intricate cameo shells. "Its all carved and you can see the carving is quite intricate. It's gone through several layers of the shell until you get down to this dark brown layer which it seems to be the base layer that they carve to." Many of these cameos were carved back late last century. The shells came from Central America and it's likely this intricate work was done in Italy or Greece. Back in the 1950s, the Museum photographed some of those to be found in collections in South Australia with their ornate representations of classical mythology. Next week shell collectors like Wayne Rumball will roll into Adelaide like the incoming tide for the Third National Shell Show. And as part of the conference, the Museum is keen to record just how many of these exquisite pieces are floating around loungerooms and garages throughout the State.

We'd like people who have got cameos at home to bring them into the Shell Show or if they can't get to the Shell Show bring them into the information section of the Museum so that they can be photographed and record the details of where they come from and now holds them." The more you examine these malloclolgical marvels the more you come to understand the time and effort required to create something like this. "That's what the shell looks like in real life. And sometimes the outside layers are polished off that you get this pearly appearance and in this one they've taken it even further and carved it. And this one has actually got the date on it, it's 1879. This one looks like an Asian design."

For more information you can email: info@postcards.sa.com.au

Published 1st September 2000