I’d like to see the size of the pearl that came out of that thing, I joked to another auction-goer as we stood there gazing at a shell the size of Rhode Island. Then I realized that it wasn’t an oyster shell but a clam shell. It was one of five giant calcified structures up for auction on this day.
They looked like architectural pieces waiting there on individual dollies for their turn to come up. They were so big that you couldn’t walk past them without stopping to gawk or admire them. I tried to figure out how you’d use them in a home – they obviously wouldn’t fit in an aquarium. As a conversation piece? A vanity piece? For me, they seemed to serve no purpose except for gawking.
- A bivalve from a giant clam called Tridacna. It sold for $800 at auction.
A few had chips, and I figured that they were man-made. I asked an auction associate if they were real, doubtful that creatures of this size grew in the ocean. The auction bid sheet said they were “natural” – which I interpreted as real – but I know that auction houses sometimes engage in hyperbole. Yes, they’re real, the associate said – him, too, dubious about how they would be used.
Here’s how they were described on the auction sheet:
Natural decorative “Elkhorn” coral formation, cleaned & cured. 12x22x21. Condition: Very good with minor breakage. (There were two of these; the other measured 13x20x18.)
Natural decorative “Finger” coral formation, cleaned & cured. 21x26x18. Condition: Good, clean condition with some “fingers” broken.
- This Elkhorn coral sold for $500.
Natural decorative coral formation, possibly “Rugosa” or “Fire” coral. 23×28.5×27. Condition: Fair with large amounts of breakage. (This was not a Rugosa because those resembled a horn and are extinct, according to several accounts on the web. It looked more like a Fire coral, which can be painful when brushed against the skin.)
Giant mollusk Tridacna shell. 31x13x23. No condition, but this baby was huge.
Once, these were living marine animals that had now been sucked from the ocean to enthrall us. Corals live in colonies and secrete calcium carbonate that forms a hard skeleton to protect their bodies. They build reefs in warm, shallow and clear tropical waters, creating an ecosystem that is home to fish, mollusks and many other species. The Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia is considered the world’s largest.
Most coral reefs are dying and endangered, a predicament fueled by such things as water pollution, dredging and harvesting. One story in a Florida newspaper told of Customs official intercepting shipping containers filled with thousands of pieces of fragile stony coral from the South Pacific on their way to being cleaned, cured and sold as jewelry to tourists. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a program aimed at conserving corals.
- Three of the five coral formations sold at auction. Counterclockwise from left: Finger coral, Tridacna clam shell and Elkhorn coral.
I found some other natural decorative corals being sold on retail sites on the web, with smaller ones selling for less than $100 and larger ones for more. Those at the auction went for much more.
The giant Tridacna clam, which normally live in coral reefs, sold for $800. The Elkhorns sold for $500 and $400. The Finger sold for $225 and the Fire for $300.
- This Fire coral sold for $300.
