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Schooner Specimen Shells
by Ross Mayhew creator of The Mollusc of the Moment Articles |
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Sowerby III, 1903 |
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Cypraea fultoni Sowerby III, 1903 (Image by UMAX Astra 1200s Mac Scanner (RM)) |
| .....This is one of the most famous mollusc shells ever! Just 10 years ago, if you wanted a decent specimen of this "classic" rarity, valued for its unusual shape and fascinating patterns ( i think this one resembles a Maltese Cross, and have called it (at least until it passes on to someone else, i.e.!!) the "Maltese Fultoni"), you would have had to pay between $10,000 and $15,000 USD!!! The first few specimens were found in the stomachs of fish* caught off the coast of Mozambique, but later on, a goodly # of them (but few of excellent quality, even to this day) were dredged in the same area by Russian trawlers, and other populations were found off South Africa. Just recently, a large trove of them were found - so many that the worst specimens were sold at a shell show in Paris for only $10!! On the high end of the scale, the specimen which once fetched $15,000 is now worth about $800 - ouch!! *NOTE: Fish which live on the bottom of the sea sometimes munch molluscs, so they are splendid place to look for deep-water species which are seldom seen: even very tiny (2mm!) specimens can be found by carefully sifting through the entrails of ground-fish, and many species which might very seldom be found otherwise (from deep water, especially!), can be recovered by this unusual method of shell collecting. |