As part of a teaching collection to show uses (including tourist "art") of
mollusca, i began collecting these various carved cowries with scenes and
sayings on them. Curious too about the "carving" i tried to collect them
from various areas to determine the "distribution" of technique. As has been
stated here, most are acid etched -- some appear to be sandblasted using a
technique similar (in reverse  lettering mode actually) to that used to make
gravestones, and a few are hand-carved. The most intresting that i have
found, and oddly only a single item to date -- a "Lord's Prayer" version of
a tiger cowry -- is what appears to me to be a porcelain reproduction. The
quality of this "shell" is so good that i did not recognize it as such from
the pictures. And even catalogued it into the collection before realizing
something was different.

bc
austin, texas

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