This article about the Philadelphia Shell Show appeared in the
Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday. I thought you guys might enjoy it.
There is a picture on the website, but you must register to be able to
read the article (it's free).

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/home/design/12839940.htm

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shell-struck
The seashell hobby warms the cockles of collectors' hearts. The annual
Philadelphia Shell Show this weekend is for enthusiasts, dealers,
crafters.
By Eils Lotozo
Inquirer Staff Writer


Rich Kirk vividly remembers the moment when his obsession with shells began.

He was a 4-year-old living in the Appalachian Mountains when his
mother brought out an old can full of shells.

"As a reward for some rare good behavior, she said I could pick one,"
Kirk said. "I was so fascinated, it took me an hour to decide. Later,
I went and stole the whole can."

These days, Kirk's shell collection includes more than 5,000 specimens
and takes up an entire room in his West Philadelphia house. He picked
up quite a few of those treasures at the Philadelphia Shell Show, an
annual event he founded 22 years ago to bring shell-shopping
opportunities closer to home.

"There was no place to buy shells in Philadelphia, and if I was going
to be here, the shells had to be here," said Kirk, 59, who works for
the Veterans Administration.

The show, which typically draws a few thousand people, returns this
weekend to the Academy of Natural Sciences for two days of scientific
exhibits, specimen displays, and a bazaar featuring dealers from
around the world and purveyors of shell crafts, jewelry, and
home-decor items.

Being featured this year are 18 antique and contemporary sailor
valentines, a shell craft that originated in the late 1800s and has
been seeing a revival.

Presented by the Philadelphia Shell Club, the show is more than just a
chance to show off treasures and shop. It's also a chance for
enthusiasts of all varieties to get together and jaw about their
favorite subject: mollusks.

Mollusks, of course, are the animals whose cementlike secretions
create the exquisitely designed exoskeletons we call shells. Objects
of fascination since ancient times, shells have been amassed into
collections since as far back as the 1500s. The first shell
collectors' association was founded in the Netherlands in 1720.

Paul Callomon, manager of the Academy of Natural Sciences' shell
collection (the fourth largest in the world, with more than eight
million specimens), said a surge in collecting began after World War
II, thanks to returning U.S. soldiers who had been stationed in the
Pacific, where colorful shells abound.

In the unusually egalitarian world of shell lovers, Callomon said, the
amateur collectors (often called conchologists) are seen as close
allies by the scientists (known as malacologists).

"If we disregarded the amateurs, we'd be shooting ourselves in the
foot, they just bring so much knowledge to the table," said Callomon,
an industrial designer by training and a self-taught malacologist who
spent more than a decade in Japan producing shell books. A main
organizer of the shell show, Callomon is also the president of the
Philadelphia Shell Club, founded in 1955 by the academy's then-head of
malacology, R. Tucker Abbott.

Though amateur collectors may be drawn in initially by the beauty of
shells, they often end up becoming just as fascinated by the science
of mollusks, which can survive on lofty mountaintops, in the deepest
oceans, even in near-boiling hot springs, and whose shells provide
clues about evolution and environmental changes. There are more than
150,000 species of mollusks, and more than 1,000 new species are named
each year.

Sue Hobbs of Cape May, N.J., a Philadelphia Shell Club member for 20
years, has focused her collection on a single variety of shell known
as cockles, which range from several millimeters to 10 inches across.
She always liked their colorful looks, but when she found a
19th-century monograph about cockles, she was hooked.

"It was very beautiful, with hand-colored plates, and that launched my
interest," said Hobbs, a specimen shell dealer who will bring some of
her wares to the shell show.

Eventually, Hobbs acquired an unusual cockle shell that got her thinking.

"It was something that was brought up from very deep water in the
Philippines, and I was able to recognize that it was a shell that
wasn't known to science." So she now has a cockle species named after
her: Acrosterigma hobbsae Vidal.

But Hobbs' single-species collection is unusual among her
shell-seeking comrades.

"Most people are general collectors," she said. Among the most popular
shell families: cowries, cones and volutes. (Specimen shell prices
generally range from $1 to more than $1,000.)

More typical is Patricia Whitaker, who lives in Millville, N.J. "I go
for aesthetics. I want the bright purple shell, the little tiny one,
and the extra-big one."

Whitaker does have her favorites, among them the pectin shell
(commonly known as a scallop). She used pectins for a craft exhibit
she'll be displaying at the shell show, fashioning them into a
chrysanthemum-like flower.

An insurance agent, Whitaker started collecting shells 16 years ago,
after she and her companion bought a beach house in Ocean City, N.J.

"I wanted a basket of shells on the fireplace, so we went to a shell
shop," she said. "Then we went back every single week thereafter. I
just got into it. I bought a compendium of seashells and learned those
Latin names and studied that price list. Now, I don't have to check
the price list. The price is what you are willing to pay.

"I used to have shells everywhere, in boxes under beds and on top of
closets," Whitaker said. She finally put most of them in storage. But
she dreams about a bigger house and about one day having her very own
shell room.

Like Rich Kirk's.

His shell sanctuary looks like a mini-version of the academy's
holdings, with floor-to-ceiling specimens organized into drawers with
notes about where they were collected, and a few of the more
eye-popping examples tucked into glass cases.

Small and overstuffed it may be, but Kirk, who is working on a
computerized catalog of his collection, loves the place with the kind
of fervor he once felt about that can of shells purloined from his
mother.

"I'll come up here and handle my shells, and it's just wonderful."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Eils Lotozo at 215-854-5610 or [log in to unmask]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------