Help Identify Vintage Sea Shell Collection--Collectors MUST SEE!!!!

[ilbuyers]

Hello,
I have purchased a large Sea shell collection through an old estate-I have uploaded all pictures and was curious if there was anything really good in lot. Or if they should just be sold together. The estate was of Mr. Walter Emmons. He was a huge collector of glass and many other things and was very well known in the glass world. Any help would be appreciative. Most of his estate dated back to the late 1800's. As far as these shells I am unsure? Here is the link-hopefully it works
<a href="http://s526.photobucket.com/albums/cc342/ilbuyers/Sea%20Shells/" target="_blank"><!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://s526.photobucket.com/albums/cc342/ilbuyers/Sea%20Shells/">http://s526.photobucket.com/albums/cc34 ... %20Shells/</a><!-- m --></a>
My contact information
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:buy@ilbuyers.com">buy@ilbuyers.com</a><!-- e -->
217-201-0538  <span class="petit">--Last edited by ilbuyers on 2009-03-04 15:52:42 --</span>

[dave r]

Hi there, I have had a look at the shells but I am afraid there is nothing really noteworthy there, they seem to mostly consist of common Caribbean shells with a few Indo-Pacific ones. Unfortunately without collection data they are not worth anything to a serious collector but as a pretty lot of shells you should get a few $$ for them.
Cheers,
Dave

[paul monfils]

As Dave said, the shells are all very common species, most of them apparently collected in Florida.  They all appear to be beach-collected (serious collectors want live-collected specimens that have not been rolled around in the surf and bleached by the sun). So, they have little if any commercial value.  With one exception.  The shell in the first picture that has writing on it.  I am assuming the writing is the The Lord's Prayer.  These etched cowries were popular many years back, not particularly among shell collectors, but just among Christian folks in general.  It is possible that this might bring a few dollars on Ebay either as a religious item or as an antique.