Shellware is a general term for ceramics and other decorative wares made in the form of seashells or decorated with moulded shells, coral and marine motifs. It covers dishes, sauce boats, salts, centrepieces, vases and comports in shell shapes, as well as related objects encrusted with real shells.
The shell was a favourite motif of Rococo design, and eighteenth-century porcelain factories in England and on the Continent made shell-shaped pickle dishes, sweetmeat stands and salts, while silversmiths produced comparable shell forms. In the nineteenth century the fashion for natural history encouraged elaborate marine designs, most famously at the Belleek factory in Ireland, whose thin, lustrous Parian porcelain was moulded into shell vases, baskets and tea wares. Majolica makers also produced colourful shell dishes and centrepieces, and the Victorian taste for shellwork extended to boxes, pictures and grottoes decorated with real shells. Collectors look for crisp moulding, good glaze and lustre, and clear factory marks, checking carefully for chips and restoration on fragile edges and rims. Shellware brings a light, decorative and slightly whimsical note to dressers, cabinets and dining tables, and it combines well with other natural history pieces.
