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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 7483088, member: 5833&quot;]Oh, it&#039;s quite all right, I didn&#039;t think for a moment that you were.&nbsp; You were quite correct that the beads you found for sale appear to be the same type of shell as yours.&nbsp; It&#039;s the seller&#039;s expertise that is at issue, &amp; even they may just be repeating what was provided by their source.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The web site page I gave you the link for is probably some of the best work I have done in the name of getting accurate info out there by trying to illustrate how to make the distinction between coral &amp; conch shell &amp;, in passing, between conch shell &amp; helmet shell beads.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I have more than once had this conversation with dealers at a very high end antique jewellery show who have some lovely pink cameo labeled &amp; priced as coral.&nbsp; They can be quite defensive about it, but, now that everyone has the Internet in the palm of their hand, I direct them to that article &amp; you can just see the light dawn.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I first began to look seriously at cameos, I kept coming across ones on eBay that were the Three Graces described as three Muses.&nbsp; I would write the seller &amp; many made the change, enough so that the correct info took hold; you rarely see the erroneous description these days.&nbsp; I eventually discovered that the incorrect description is in print in a US collectors guide.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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