Stix, Hugh and Marguerite and R. Tucker Abbott, — The Shell: gift of the sea.

NY, Abradale Press/Abrams, (1984). VG in VG DJ. Shells are a powerful force in early societies. Excavations have yielded evidence of man's early and continuing attachment. to the shell, both as a cult symbol and as an aesthetic object. Religion, art, and sorcery have found inspiration in the shell or its representation. Following the Victorian era, an age of extravagant romanticizing, interest in the shell went into a sharp decline. This book wants to change this attitude, to restore some of the admiring awe man had experienced throughout history for the work of these strange sea creatures, master builders whose architectural miracles embodied the bases of a multitude of mathematically correct vaults, arches, staircases, porticoes, and niches. A beautiful book.