Shell Lamps

The carving on shell dates back at least to one hundred thousand years ago. In 1891, the archaeologist Eugène Dubois found a shell, which he classified as belonging to the Homo Erectus and later on, starting from 2007, Josephine Joordens, a researcher of the University of Leiden, together with a team of international scholars, is studying the carving on this shell to understand if it could be classified as the first form of artistic testimony of the human history.

The shell, with its wide surface and whitish colour, has always been a perfect canvas on which to carve artistic representations and everyday life events since very old times. According to Michele Arcangelo Migliarini’s inventory of the Medici Collection, there were several shell cameos carved during the Greek and the Roman periods. Such statements seem to confirm the hypothesis that shell carving was already an artistic expression in the classical age. But, although occasionally produced during this age, the earliest wide use of shell for cameo carving was during the Renaissance, in the 15th and 16th centuries, when cameos were well-appreciated by the European court ladies who used to wear this kind of accessories to enrich their dresses and their beauty. As a consequence, this handcrafted product gained a special place in the history of jewelry.

However, until this period, the majority of cameos were carved on hard gemstones. Since the Hellenic age, semi-precious stones, such as sardonyx and carnelian, were particularly prized for their different colour shades and thus considered suitable for the cameo carving art. The famous “Tazza Farnese” is probably the oldest surviving example of this ancient art. It is a Hellenistic bowl (2nd century BC) made of a sardonyx agate large cameo and purchased by Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1471. This artwork is currently stored in the Archaeological National Museum of Naples.

In the middle of the 18th century, the discovery of new shell varieties caused a significant increase in the number of cameos that were carved from shells. Especially after 1850, the demand for cameos grew as they became popular souvenirs of the Grand Tour among the middle class and its use was particularly popularized by Queen Victoria of England.

Furthermore, the 19th century became a pivotal period in the history of shell cameo carving art. This is because, while the growth of manufacturing centers had an arrest in Europe and in Northern and Central Italy, the shell carving production raised in Torre del Greco, a small town in front of the sea and at the slope of the famous volcano Vesuvius. In this flourishing area of fishermen and artisans, the shell cameo as well as the coral carving art rapidly became a prerogative of the local manufacturers, in so much as being worldwide renowned as the symbol and the passion of a land.

The artistic imprint the local artisans gave to the shell cameo carvings during the centuries, made the city one of the most important centers for this kind of art. The ancient Neapolitan goldsmith tradition, a mix of invention and classical taste, blended with the enterprise and merchant spirit of those who travelled around the world and gave birth to an outstanding jewelry tradition that until nowadays still represents the identity of Torre del Greco’s inhabitants.

Each cameo is unique and can be considered a little sculptural work: its design is the detailed and realistic representation of a subject, but at the same time, it reveals the sensitivity of the artist and arises new feelings and emotions in the observer. Originally, the subjects carved onto shell cameos were scenes from the Greek and the Roman mythologies, or portraits of rulers and important dignitaries. There were also representations of historical and social events which marked important periods of our past time. Thus, it can be said that, with these representations, the cameo engraver gives form and reality to people beliefs, tastes and customs.

The peculiarity of the shell cameo carving is to be a piece of art which can be worn, or can be set within a frame, and therefore used as a piece of furniture. In this sense, the shell cameo acquires both a practical meaning and a spiritual value for its possessor. This is also the case of the shell lamp, an entire natural shell carved and set on a base with a bulb, to be used as a table lamp. The larger surface of the entire shell gives the artist the possibility to carve a wider scene. The inspiration in producing this art object evidently came from the Greek and Roman bas-relief cups and vases. Also, as because of its translucent layers, the shell is a perfect element to be lighted from inside and to reflect the representation carved on it.

Our shell lamps are all completely handcrafted by using a type of shell called Sardonyx shell (scientific name: Cassis Madagascariensis). The Sardonyx shell origins were mistakenly attributed to the coasts of Madagascar, but actually its natural habitat is the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Its outer surface has white-to-cream shades, while its internal dark brown layer makes the shell very suitable for the realization of cameos. The strong chromatic contrast between the outer and the inner layers of the shell puts in evidence the representation carved, by arising the design from the bottom surface, as a bas-relief. This contrast creates a great light and shadow effect and emphasizes the depth and the forms of the whole representation. Each step of the shell processing, from the size selection to the shaping and engraving, is still carried out with the local traditional methods.

This catalogue is dedicated to our shell lamps, designed and carved by Italian artists, such as Vincenzo Imposimato e Lucio Gaglione. The design on the shell lamps can vary among different themes: from the mythological and religious to the historical one, from the pictorial, literary and fantasy subject to the realistic scenes representing the nature and the human beings, with some space left also for portraits.