1 - Shell Connections: The Exoticization and Eroticization of Asian Maritime Material Culture

Summary

Abstract

New knowledge of shell-carving techniques practiced in China changed the way materials were physically manipulated by craftsmen in Europe, a process that contributed to the appropriation but also the exoticisation and eroticisation of collectible shells across Eurasia. Mapping the geography of transcultural connections in maritime material culture, this chapter discusses shells, in particular nautilus shells, in relation to the bodies of early modern artisans and collectors in China and Europe. Examining concepts of material agency and considering objects as ‘actors’, it argues that Guangzhou-carved conches changed early modern European craftsmanship through non-verbal means and shows how shells were perceived in both cultures as gendered objects at the intersection of material collecting and visual fantasies of oceans and foreign spaces.

Keywords: shells, craftsmanship, Eurasia, collecting, material agency, gender

When the Dutch East India Company ship Witte Leeuw sank in 1613 to the west of Africa, it was carrying a variety of Indonesian, Filipino and African shells. (Fig. 1.1) Its cargo also included Asian spices, Chinese ceramics, gemstones and jewellery. The vessel, which was on its way from Bantam, Indonesia, to Amsterdam, was one of many sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ships that took Asian shells to Europe where they entered elite collections and played an important role in European networks of humanist friendships. In addition to natural and polished nautilus shells, highly-prized nautilus shells whose surfaces had been carved with figurative scenes and botanical patterns by Chinese craftsmen were also imported. These were often characterized as “Indian” (indianisch) in European correspondence, travel records and collection inventories between c. 1500 and c. 1700. Mentioning a nautilus in his treatise on “the relics of bloodless animals,” the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), for example, identifies the shell as coming from “the Indies” (ab Indis). At times, the treatise specifically refers to the “West Indies” (Occidentalia India/India Occidentalis), but overall uses the generic term “India” to denote Asia as well as the Americas. In his World Book of 1534, the German humanist Sebastian Franck (1499–1543) explains that there were three different regions called “India.”