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[Philipp]

Hello everybody!

My name is Philipp and I am new at this forum. I am collecting since 2007.

A few weeks ago, I have bought a possibly (or obviously?) treated rosselli. The price was cheap and the vendor has written "F+, dead taken and repaired by Philippinos but repair peeling off now". So far, so good.

After I have studied the shell, I got doubts. Was this shell really "Made in Philippines"? If the shell was coated by whomsoever, he had also took care of so many difficulties, e.g the special color of the teeth or the accurate painting around the margins and all the other edges - without causing any scar of gloss paint. I have checked this with a bino, there are no hints concerning lacquer.

These are my first thoughts around faked shells. I have no experiences. Can someone tell me whether it is possible to do manual work like this?



Detail 1 Detail 2

Philipp

[felix]

This looks like no repair happened, but a portion of the top layer of dorsal nacre came off. this happens from time to time.

[Philipp]

Yes, I was off the track. Everything we can see is the shell itself and the entire repair has vanished. Fine. I had feared one can create a complete surface as perfect as nature by airbrush.

[Cribraria Kid]

Hi Phillip

Sorry to see your rosselli has delaminated. This could well be a quite natural occurance

An associate of mine in WA, has sent the odd shell from his own collection, to the Phillipnes for repair work. Generally these shells are one-offs, dwarf jeaniana, rare variations of marginata and the like.

Perhaps you could find a dealer in the Phillipines who would repair your shell-turn the process around if you like and put their skills to the common good (for a change)

or

maybe just bite the bullet and buy a new shell (one that comes with a warranty) from a "local dealer"
_________________
Cribraria Kid

[PVDB]

This same rosselli , or otherwise a homozygous twin look-a-like has been offered to me from reliable contact some 3 months ago - no fraud, no repair, bargain price, actually nearly for free.
It was simply offered as a material proof of what can happen to shells and how intact underlying layers can be.
In my opinion it would be a big error to have this shell repaired:
- now it is a genuine token of natural/accidental delamination
- after repair it would simply become "another doctored shell"
and by the way,rosselli's arent that inaccessible any more.
My advice: keep this one unchanged, You will "soon"enough be able to by another (intact) one.

BBG from PVDB.

[Philipp]

Thanks for your compassions! But I am fine with this shell. I bought this rosselli because it is damaged. I wanted it, just to learn something. And I don't want to give it to a shell doctor for a repair. I got this shell from a reliable contact and the dealer is apologized - he wrote what has happen to the shell, furthermore I saw a picture of it.

On the other hand… if I give it to a doctor and ask for a total remove of the nacre, maybe I will receive edingeri.

[benicypraea]

Hello all:

I agree with Philipp and PVDB. Next time you´ll find a very nice undamaged Zoila roselli! By the way, the damaged specimen you have in the collection is something "unique" in my opinion. A friend of mine showed to me time ago his Zoila collection. He has several Zoila roselli, but not gem at all. The important for this collector was the non-economic value of these: in spite of the poor quality of these shells, he said to me that they were collected by a local australian diver years ago before the regular trade with this pretty cowry and later sold to him (to my friend, I want to say) there in Perth, where he was living in that time. He has also a fragment of a Zoila roselli partially destroyed by the teeth of a large fish.
Myself, I have in the collection a very nice (for me at least) Zoila roselli satiata from the original "edingeri" population. The shell is not fully orange, but displays an orange blotch on background, the quality is fine, with many water bubbles here and there, but is fully mature, glossy and has intact tips, the important for me is that this shell was taken a few years before the australian diver and collector Andrew Edinger discovered the very rare orange variation of satiata in Point Quobba. In consecuence, the shell has its own value for me and its own place in the drawer!.
Regards,
Beni
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I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.