Throughout the world, the nautilus is captured to carve the elegantly shaped shells, and for their nacreous inner shell layer, a pearl substitute. Mother-of-pearl or nacre, which lines some mollusc shells, is used to make organic jewellery. It has traditionally been inlaid into furniture and boxes, particularly in China. It has been used to decorate musical instruments, watches, pistols, fans and other products. Shells have been used in Southern Italy as a cheaper alternative to layered stone when carving cameos.Guglielmo Martinello, Agostina Pizzocri, Giovanna Rosselli (2003). Musei dell'artigianato: oltre 300 collezioni in Italia (in Italian). Milano: Touring Club Italiano. In the fine art of the Italian Renaissance, Sandro Botticelli's c. 1486 The Birth of Venus depicts the goddess Venus emerging from the waves on a scallop shell.Mack, Charles R. (2002),"Botticelli's Venus: Antique Allusions and Medicean Propaganda," Explorations in Renaissance Culture, 28, 1 (Winter), 2002, 1–31. In the Dutch Golden Age, still life painters such as Adriaen Coorte often depicted ornate sea shells of varied kinds in their compositions.Seymour Slive, Dutch Painting, 1600-1800, Yale UP, 1995, , page 319 and passim
