Shell-shaped decorative objects were very popular during the 19th century. There were trinket boxes covered in tiny shells, counter bells made with several mother-of-pearl shells put together into… ...

Mother-of-pearl is the hard, silvery, internal layer of several kinds of shells, especially oysters, the large varieties of which in the Indian Seas secrete this coat of sufficient thickness to ...

Where buttons come from: The mother-of-pearl shells mottled with punctures from old-fashioned process. By DAISY DUMAS Updated: 19:02 EDT, 2 March 2012 . 25. View comments.