COLLECTING SHELLS In times of Internet GUIDO T. POPPE COLLECTING SHELLS In times of Internet IMPRESSUM First Published November 2016 Conchbooks Publishing house, book-traders and antiquarian Dr. Carsten Renker Bahnhofstr. 117 D-55296 Harxheim, Germany email: [email protected] web: http://www.conchbooks.de Guido T. Poppe email: [email protected] web: http://www.conchology.be Collecting Shells Guido T. Poppe ISBN 978-3-939767-69-5 Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.ddb.de © Guido T. Poppe © Conchbooks All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. Editorial by Guido T. Poppe Produced by Guido T. Poppe, Dr. Carsten Renker & Klaus Groh. i August Lovell Reeve, Shell Collector, Shell Dealer and Author of major conchological books. His hand holds a large Murex from the east coast of Mexico and rests on a volume of his famous Conchologica Iconica (Photo Wikipedia). INTRODUCTION About two years ago, during one of the many philosophical “attacks” on our minds, as we all have once in a while, I thought there is a huge change going on in shell collecting. And it is evident that the new generation has no solid backbone in col- lecting shells – as did the older generation. The reasons for that are obvious: the old generation relied on painful and difficult communication systems and much of their knowledge was acquired through “real” talks with often “older and wiser” concholo- gists. This mainly happened during multiple conchological gatherings. In Belgium for example, we got 3 such gatherings a month, and many among us seldom skipped a re- union. There were two Saturday afternoons in the center of Brussels and one Sunday morning in Antwerp. The meeting in Antwerp attracted also many Dutch collectors and virtually each meeting counted more than 100 participants, occasionally even over 150 persons attended, coming from as far as Amsterdam in the north as the north of France in the south. 2 We did not realize at the time how important these meetings were. Many of us came there to acquire shells and to listen to “talks”, most often on travels one of the members undertook, in order to find the desired treasures. But the best gift to all of us was the transmission of knowledge and values in the field. Apart from the big transfer of know-how in collecting: from how to keep shells on how the clean them. All the clubs and societies at that time got also a library. So, we stayed up to date and the club became a window on the world, through exchange of journals. All this is fast disappearing today, and even the latest shell shows in Europe see a strong decline. Most of us think that the BIG EVENTS, such as the Antwerp and Paris shell shows will remain major pools of attraction, but the smaller shell shows have a difficult survival stage at present. This does not mean there are less collectors, on the contrary, there have never been so many before: but they all get together on the internet. Either as members of mega-homepages of shell companies such as Conchology, Inc., who has 3600 active members and as many dormant members. Or they buy and sell on auction-websites. At present, many correspond also by Facebook. A comparison: in the golden time of shell collecting, the biggest popular journals reached up to almost 2000 members (Of Sea and Shore, La Conchiglia, Hawaiian Shell News). Today, we know there are at least 10 000 people actively interested in mollusks. This is without the many thousands of biologists working on them in Univer- sities and Ecological societies worldwide – a world not much linked with the shell- collector society. So, the goal of this book, which was growing more than expected through the year, is to procure newcomers with basic knowledge so that their venue in the shell world is easier. The knowledge we got from older collectors on shell clubs, part of that at least should be acquired through the present writings. If this succeeds, then the time we took in making this book, was well spend. 3 Some of the chapters in this book may be controversial and not to all tastes: opin- ions differ. I tried throughout the book to see always the pro and contra, the recto and the verso of thoughts and opinions. It is the purpose that delicate matters, often left unspoken, are discussed in order to bring peace and unity, not the reverse. Mason Blunt, a collector from Victoria, Australia, made a very nice meme on “Malacologists”. It is well done and humoristic. But more true than one thinks. The book is also made to avoid the traps he writes about. Here the meme: 4 SECTION 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Much of the knowledge here accumulated comes from several thousand collec- tors, scientists and naturalists, met during almost half a century of conchological ac- tivities that brought me to all continents and a multitude of cultures this planet is rich on. My prime thanks go to all of them. For the practical realization of this book the people in Conchology, Inc. and the facilities of the company were incredibly valuable. Particularly I want to name Sheila Tagaro and Jerlyn Sarino for the direct assistance of the author. Philippe for all the technical achievements around both the computer version and the eBook. Cecilia Vil- lavelez for layout and Jeneriza Gesapine for programming. Lourina Segovia and Je- cilia Gabutin for re-reading and ameliorating the text. Finally Carsten Renker, Klaus Groh, Steve Hubrecht and Tom Rice for re-reading, remarks and the editorials. Other direct contributors, for texts and photos of their materials and collections have been mentioned throughout the work as their information and input was used and are thanked here for their efforts and trust. 5 CHAPTER 2 COLLECTING SHELLS AND WHY Checking Wikipedia we read: “The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector.” Wikipedia gives a good overview of “collecting” and we refer here to this wonder- ful subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting In the gigantic world of collectors, shell collectors are framed by the name “Con- chologists”. Occasionally, when their hobby extends to the study of the animals in- habiting the shells, they are called “Malacologists”. Malacologists are rather rare among the vast number of shell collectors, while “Conchologists” are the norm. Collecting is a very old occupation, deeply rooted in humanity, and likely linked to the need of “gathering together” things. It gives a direct satisfaction to the ones busy with it, not alien to the more original satisfaction one gets when finding berries in nature or during the hunting experience. As an occupation, collecting shells or other natural objects, such as butterflies, are the most direct descendants of the 16th and 17th century “Curiosity Cabinets”. 6 A 16th century Curiosity cabinet, the cabinet of curiosities of Ole Worm in the Netherlands. The shells are on the backwall in boxes called “Cochlea, Turbinata, Conchilia and Conchiliata (After: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities#mediaviewer/File:Musei_Wormiani_Historia.jpg). As pointed out in Wikipedia, we confirm that collecting activities go in pair with wealth: when times of prosperity and possible leisure time arrives, the number of col- lectors increases. The reverse is also true. In the world of Conchology, the World Wars virtually stopped conchological activities and even the size of conchological journals decreased during these years. The most important feature of collecting is the amelioration of the quality of life of the collector. As many Conchologists experience: their life is way better since they collect shells and in a large diversity of topics, the hobby is incredibly rewarding, mentally, intellectually and materially. If one wants, in a society where loneliness is a major problem, the active Conchologist gets an easy access to many social events. Shell collecting has been advised for certain types of psychological disorders since around 1960. 7 However, as any other activity, shell collecting has to be Alfred Russel Wallace, done intelligently to reach a maximum of satisfaction. I met Born 1823 became 90 years old and lived until several, but fortunately only a few, conchologists, for who life 1913 in a time where became worse and the shells an obsession which obliged most people made it dec- them in a frame of unhappy work. Avoid this course of events ades shorter. He was a naturalist and hunted and shell collecting will enrich your life so much that you will all kinds of animals never stop the activity. For the delight of many: most concho- from the Amazon River logists and malacologists have exceptionally long lives. This basin to Malaysia and Indonesia, making a liv- was true a hundred years ago and is even more true today. ing out of collecting natural history. He also The old shell Cabinets were occasionally documented in is called the father of Bio- geography, invented the major books which are quite rare today. Here a book that we Wallace effect in biology acquired many years ago and which was written by “Father and the “line of Wal- du Molinet”. lace”, separating huge biogeographic regions in Asia (From Wikipe- dia). Part of an engraving on two large folio pages. In the centerpiece weapons of all kinds, one can even see clubs collected in north America. We recognize many things, paintings, small statues, cups, vases, but also taxidermy: a giant snake. More with a trum- pet, a collection of shoes, and in the compartments on the left, on top, skulls of birds and below that some bivalves.