Featured Brass/bronze seashells

About 3" long on each one. The one on the left is 8 1/2 ounces - one on the right 5 1/2 ounces. Brass or bronze - leaning towards brass because they are a bit yellower than bronze. A little nicer than the normal decorative brass stuff I see in the thrifts / home goods type stores. Haven't found any marks or signatures yet.... MAYBE a mark inside the opening of long shell on the bottom side - trying to get a good pic of that. Any ideas where these are from? For some reason they strike me as perhaps Japanese? Thanks for any input!

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they are kinda delicate for their mass...!

 

More likely to be a plated base metal than either of the copper alloys you mention. Likely recent since they were together (the passage of years would likely have separated them) and are undamaged; the dark stuff is a lacquer or chemical coating, not an age patina. Jmho.

 

I can’t seem to find the words to describe it, but whatever I’m seeing in the details of this photo, particularly in the center of the item, the formation/rendering of detail, makes me think it is a recent item. You can also see how the lacquer or stain is lost in small patches where it has touched or knocked against something; different from a real patina.

 

Agreed the "patina" is applied - not from age. Still think they could be solid brass though - did a specific gravity test on the clamshell - came up just over 8.4.