The removable outer layer of a seagoing turtle’s shell used for craft or artistic purposes.
The best-quality tortoiseshell plates produce attractive veneer or enough material for small but costly objects. Technically, only land turtles are tortoises, so the name “tortoiseshell” is somewhat misleading (perhaps a holdover from a time when inferior land tortoise plates were used). Tortoiseshell veneer can be used to decorate furniture or chests. Solid tortoiseshell products run the gamut from snuff boxes to eyeglass frames, although combs are the most popular and traditional use. Tortoiseshell use fell out of favor with the end of the Roman empire but reappeared in Europe in the seventeenth century and reached its high mark during the nineteenth century.
Tortoiseshell has been used since ancient times in most cultures that live in ecosystems with sea turtles. Some craft products have been produced using land turtle shells, but this is rare. Sea turtles were a source of meat, and doubtless the exposure of the shell to fire, boiling, and scraping revealed its true beauty and durability. The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) was exploited in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), which has a midlatitude distribution including the Mediterranean, is a much better quality source of tortoiseshell.
The tropical hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) produces the finest tortoiseshell in the world. The hawksbill is native to tropical waters off the coasts of Africa, the Americas (including the Caribbean Sea), Asia, and the South Pacific. Naturally, the use of hawksbill tortoiseshell is a long-standing tradition in those cultures residing in the region.
The European discovery of the New World, as well as greater contact with Asia and the South Pacific, made hawksbill tortoiseshell infinitely more accessible. The Spanish had direct access to hawksbills in the Caribbean. Tortoiseshell was also a part of the first exchanges in the nascent sixteenth-century Spanish trade in the Pacific.
The use of hawksbill tortoiseshell never declined in the Muslim world (with its access to the Indian Ocean) or Asia. Many Italian craftsmen learned to work tortoiseshell as a result of their cities’ close trade contacts with the Arab world. Some of these craftsmen were taken back to France by an invading army and there the secret of tortoiseshell artistry took root in western Europe. Indeed, French artisans took the use of tortoiseshell to new heights in creating exquisite veneers and personal objects of shell. A majority of the artisans were Huguenots, and religious intolerance in France eventually forced many to England, further spreading the use of tortoiseshell.
Delicately textured and exquisitely colored, tortoiseshell was widely used in fashion accessories and furniture, as in this seventeenth-century French bureau. Declining populations of turtles and growing environmental concerns largely ended the trade by the late twentieth century. (The Art Archive/Private Collection/Dagli Orti)
Naturally, the hawksbill tortoiseshell used in Europe had to be obtained from the warmer waters of the New World and Asia. Tortoiseshell can be added to the long list of natural goods (such as spices, teak, or diamonds) that could be obtained by Europeans only through trade. In addition, the higher demand altered the intensity of sea turtle harvesting. Suddenly, a natural product that had been obtained sparingly became more widely available. In the Caribbean and South America, European powers could collect tortoiseshell directly. Elsewhere, the European demand for tortoiseshell encouraged Asian populations to hunt more sea turtles that they had previously. Worldwide, sea turtle populations declined rapidly, and fewer turtles were allowed to reach their awesome mature sizes more common in antiquity.
Tortoiseshell was always an expensive, luxury item consumed by only the wealthy. By the late nineteenth century, celluloid, an artificial material, could be made to replicate tortoise-shell. Later on in the twentieth century, plastic was also used as a replacement. These manufactured, cheaper substitutes, accompanied by the decline in the number of seagoing turtles, depressed the trade.
Since the twentieth century, many countries have taken steps to protect sea turtles legally. The results have been mixed but generally negative. The loss of undisturbed beaches on which the turtles lay their eggs has allowed a continued decline. However, a renewed interest in genuine tortoiseshell has increased demand once more. Some advocates of tortoiseshell use believe that its economic value can encourage responsible harvesting of sea turtles, thus ensuring their survival.
Charles Allan
See also: Art; Exploration and Trade.
Hanlon, Gordon. “Tortoiseshell.” In The Dictionary of Art, vol. 31, ed. Jane Turner. Willard, OH: Macmillan, 1996.
Ritchie, Carson I.A. Shell Carving: History and Techniques. New York: A.S. Barnes, 1974.
Slater, Richard. “Tortoiseshell Piqué Jewelry.” Antique Collecting 33, no. 7 (December–January 1998–1999): 34–35.