When I first saw the two large tortoise shells in the glass case at the auction house, my first reaction was “how wrong!” It seemed a little barbaric to be selling the disembodied shells of these animals.
I wondered how the owner had come by the shells: picked them up on a beach or bought them from someone who had removed them from the backs of living creatures. Either way, it was a little off-putting to see them being sold for profit.
The shells were beautiful, though, clean and waxed. One was a little larger than the other – much like a mother and child, or a couple. I figured the shells would be unique decorative pieces, but was surprised to learn that they were widely used for wall decorations – some real and some not.
In his 2012 fall collection, designer Nate Berkus offered lacquered faux tortoise shell wall hangings in three colors: yellow, cream and green. He decorated his Manhattan home with a white one.
He was inspired by a tortoise shell that his parents had picked up on their honeymoon in Mexico and had kept in their home when he was a child. He has since used vintage ones (as in real?) in his own home, and picked one up in Mexico City once.
A design site called Driven by Décor offered photos of tortoise shells used as wall accessories in a restaurant in South Beach, and in homes as standalones, in groupings and placed on stands. Here are three made of resin in different sizes on metal stands. And a resin at your favorite Bed, Bath and Beyond.
If those are not rustic or “real” enough for you, this site offered a “weathered” shell.
Real tortoise shells, I learned, don’t come from just any old turtle. Shells used mostly for decorative pieces come from the hawksbill turtle, the loggerhead turtle and the green turtle. True tortoise shells come from sea turtles, not from tortoises that live on land.
The shells are made of a hard, brittle translucent material, and have long been prized. The Chinese used them as inlay for furniture. The Romans imported them from Egypt and also used them on furniture. Starting in the 17th century, the French coupled them with brass and called it boulle.
When softened (with heat or by boiling in salted water), the shells become very pliable, and can be easily shaped and molded into a veneer or as a standalone object, such as jewelry, combs and snuff boxes. In fact, the conditioned shells can be carved, welded, sawed and twisted.
The shells are easy to acquire; one way is to be around when the turtles lay their eggs. They crawl onto land and then turn on their backs, but have a hard time righting themselves. All the poachers have to do is wait until that happens. The turtles are also caught in fishing nets (accidental and purposefully) and with hooks. They are also harvested for their eggs and flesh.
The majority of the shells used on most of the real objects come from the hawksbill turtle, whose shell is the thickest and has the most beautiful patterns. These turtles can be found among coral reefs in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
They are on the endangered species list in this country, and cannot be legally hunted or sold in some other countries. It’s also illegal to sell them internationally, but they are still traded.
Sea turtles were once in abundance, but their population has thinned out because of excessive poaching and loss of coral reefs, among other things.
As for the shells at auction, I did not handle them but they looked to be the real thing with their nicks and missing pieces.
