File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972713800).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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120 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL a very suggestive analysis, for decorative uses, of shell outlines which, half conven- tionalized and more or less intricately interwoven, form patterns possibly of wide adaptability to domestic and pul)- lic ornament, in wall papers, curtains, embroidery and textiles. The subject has an a\'ailal)le circuit of application not fully realized, and a significant illustration of this may be seen in a recently completed design l)y Mr. F. B. Clark for a fountain, here re- produced through the kindness of the sculptor. The wall of the l)asin in which the graceful mermaid surmounts a seaweed-draped rock, tantalizing with a reed the mutinous crustacean, has a cornice or frieze made up of a contin- uous, interblended train of seashells. As a very curious adjunct to the aspect of shell ornamental uses was the dis- covery in a Franco-Merovingian bury- ing ground at Nesles-lez-Verlinctness in France of a Cyproea pantherina (habi- tat— Red Sea to Australia), which had been used as an ornament or perhaps as an amulet; and the further statement by Dr. Tiberi, in a memoir on the shells found at Pompeii, that these same shells were apparently valued by the Roman women of that ill-fated city, as amulets. Perhaps the most original, and in a sense presiunptuous use of shells for or- nament is the recent successful attempt to coat them with a dull silver film which, being electrolytically applied, re- produces with fidelity every feature and detail of the shell's surface. Examples of such shells are on exhibition in the Museum. These silverized shells sup- port ^•ariousIy designed implements, or themselves form finished vessels, handles anfl ornaments. The effects are ingeni- ously diversified by combining with the shells other objects, such as sea urchins, and by combining contrasted types of shells into an artistic composition.^ In the shell hall of the Museum Mr. Albert Operti has most effectively turned to account the outlines of seaweeds as decoratixe adjuncts, the pecten (P. ir- radians and P. pallium) as an escutcheon, and the beautiful big conch of our east- ern coast (F. carica) as a dividing pillar. These, treated vividly in color, produce a charming miu'al frieze which gives the hall a needed aesthetic relief. 1 This interesting ware is manufactured by Mr. L. E. Tuzo of Fatiwood, New Jersey.
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