Portrait 



of a 

 Collector 



By Nancy Davis 



Photos by Nancy Davis 



Renate Skinner with 

 her man-eater clam 

 ( above ) and her collec- 

 tion (below) 



iJhe waited for a year. 

 Timing the ebb and flow of the tides. 

 Watching as her treasure was washed by the 

 waves. 



Finally arranging for a special boat and 

 seven people to help her collect the prize. 



Then, when the tides were just right, the 

 crew hoisted her discovery aboard, and Renate 

 Skinner claimed another shell — a 400-pound 

 man-eater clam — for her collection. 



Now the cumbersome clam from a tiny 

 island in Indonesia is the focal point on the 

 patio of Skinner's Greenville, N.C., home. The 

 rest of her insured collection is stored in seven 

 teak collector cabinets. 



In seashell circles, Renate Skinner is known 

 as a rare find, a combination of scientist and 



collector. She's combed the beaches of the 

 world, and she's got a treasure of shells to show 

 for it. 



Skinner methodically pulls open each 

 drawer and proudly shows off her finds, reel- 

 ing off scientific names and locations of dis- 

 covery. She displays her most prestigious 

 find — a new species she discovered — in a small 

 glass dome. 



Skinner's fascination with collecting began 

 in her native Germany. Then her search was 

 confined to rocks, insects, wildflowers and 

 land snails. 



After World War II, Skinner took a job with 

 an international hotel firm. When she was given 

 her pick of locations, she chose Indonesia — 

 "the land with the most possibility for collect- 

 ing shells," she says. 



Skinner explored the beaches of Indonesia, 

 Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Pakistan, India 

 and the Philippines. 



All that traveling added up to a lot of shells 

 and other artifacts. When she moved in 1976, 

 she shipped about 4 tons of her collection to 

 Greenville. 



For her, most of that collection pales in com- 

 parison with the 2-inch cone-shaped shell that 

 was the first of its kind to be discovered. 



"I have been on the mountain of where every 

 shell collector wants to be. I have found a spe- 

 cies that is new to science," Skinner says. 



She was diving on a coral reef when she saw 

 the shell in a niche between living corals and 

 fine white sand. 



Nearly seven years later, the scientific world 

 recognized her find as a new species. Her 

 reward was the opportunity to name the shell 

 for her father. 



But one mountain isn't enough. Skinner says. 

 Even in landlocked Greenville, Skinner isn't 

 ready to call it quits on collecting. For the past 

 year, she and her husband have been planning 

 their next vacation. 



They've studied nautical maps to pinpoint 

 when the lowest tides of the year will be in 

 Indonesia. That's when shelling is best, she 

 says. 



Skinner will pack for the trip with shelling in 

 mind. A large briefcase, complete with glass 

 jars and alcohol, is her luggage. She usually 

 collects live shells, drops them in the alcohol to 

 preserve them, and records her find in a 

 register. 



When they arrive in Indonesia, they'll cross a 

 mountain range by jeep, then take a boat to a 

 tiny island. And all the way, they'll watch to see 

 that no one follows them to their sacred shell- 

 ing grounds. 



Skinner keeps the exact location of her finds 

 a secret. "If others found it, they would knock 

 the corals down and destroy everything," she 

 says. 



