This is a handcrafted display of seashells found around the world. Paintings and hand-lettered text invite the reader into a world of shells, with each section opening with a letter from A-Z designed from tiny shells that follow descriptions of shells with the popular as well as the Latin names included. Science, folklore, history, myth, cooking, craft and travel all inform the individual portraits. For example, the murex shell's entry tells the history of the royal purple dye extracted from them by Mediterranean sailors in ancient times. There are recipes for delicacies such as mussel and almond soup and conch salad and instructions for crafts such as making wind chimes and stencilling a frieze of shells.
- ISBN10 0821219243
- ISBN13 9780821219249
- Publish Date 16 July 1992
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 2 March 2010
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Little, Brown & Company
- Imprint Bulfinch Press,U.S.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 96
- Language English