A uovel method of converting natural objects into elegant objects for the home consists in coating shells, sea 

 urchiDS, sea horses, corals and the like, with a thin film of silver. Above are shown two large abalone shells sup- 

 ported by sea horses to form bon-bon dishes.i The sea horses and the outside of the shells are silvered. One 

 shell is shown below the other in reversed position 



the Gabay collection of the Museum is 

 seen the metallic blue, polished shell of 

 the nautilus, and in the Museum's South 

 Sea Island hall, the heraldic use of the 

 nautilus in conjunction with flat plates 

 of mother-of-pearl is shown in the head- 

 dress of the Tingua tribes of the Samoan 

 Islands. 



The problem of determining the 

 chronological succession of aesthetic 

 motives in races can hardly be sepa- 

 rated from a studious consideration of 

 the features in nature that evoke the 

 sense of color or suggest the categories 



' Loaned by Mrs. F. A. Constable that they might 

 be photogriiphed for reproduction in the JotiRNAi.. 

 118 



of form. The lines in vegetation, and 

 its concrete products in flower, leaf and 

 trunk, stem, tendril and bud, have indis- 

 putably been assimilated in art and ar- 

 chitecture. The column, the acanthus 

 and lotus-leaf capitals are examples. 

 The shapes and attitudes of animals, 

 with expressions derived from their qual- 

 ities of strength or ferocity, have most 

 conspicuousl\' furnishetl heraldic design 

 and topical sculpture with motives and 

 ornament. Shells, less noticeably, must 

 have stimulated artistic feeling, although 

 their involution in art in the way of 

 convention is not conspicuous. Ruskin 

 in his Stones of Venice enumerates 



