www.houstonshellclub.com Volume XXVI, Issue 7

Auction

March, 2019

The Epitonium

Houston Conchology Society

HCS Banquet The annual end-of-year event will be Saturday, May 18 at 11:30 a.m. at the Monument Inn, so mark your calendars. Tickets are $23 per person and will be avail-able at the auction. More details will be in the April and May newsletters.

pictures of many of the oral auction items.

A lunch of sandwiches, chips, and drinks will be provided by the club. HCS members, please bring dips, salads, desserts, etc. to sup-plement the sandwiches. An invitation, map, and oral auction list will accompany this newsletter. Come join the fun and invite your friends and family!

Darwin says, “Be prepared with checkbook, food to share, and a wish list in hand when you come to the annual auction held on Satur-day, March 2 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights – 306 East 15th Street. We have shells to collect from oral, silent, and sale table venues. Plan to come at 10:00 am for our magnificent event!”

In addition to shells, we will have coral, sev-eral shell related collectables, a vest decorated with shells, and home décor items, including some of Patty Humbird’s gorgeous needle-work. The oral and the silent auctions, along with the sale table, will have numerous books for you to purchase. There will be raffle items, door prizes, and the popular “guess how many” jar.

Two large, table-top display cases will be available. They are 36 X 30 inches .The inte-rior is 8 inches deep in the back and 4 ½ inches deep in the front. Another item is a fixer-upper, glass topped display/coffee table. It is 36 inches square with the top on, and it is 8 inches deep. There are pictures of a case and the table in this newsletter along with

Submitted by Rusti Stover

In the absence of President Angela Doucette, the February meet-ing of the Houston Conchology Society was called to order by Vice President Darwin Alder at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday February 17, 2019 at the Weekley YMCA. AGENDA ITEMS: Nancy Mustachio made a motion to accept the January minutes as published. Dave Green seconded, all ap-proved, motion passed. Treasurer Sandy Clark reported club funds of $5,101.00. Sandy also reported on the end of season ban-quet which is set for Saturday, May 18th, at 11:30 a.m. at the Monument Inn. The club will pay for the taxes and incidentals. Tickets for the banquet are set at 23 dollars per person.

OLD BUSINESS: Tina Petway spoke about the club grant pro-gram. She said we had one great applicant last year, who is studying oyster reefs at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Tina said we usually give 2 grants, but there are few applicants. She proposed that we combine the two grants and call it the Boone/McHenry Grant, with an amount to be set at 1500 dollars. The grant could be raised to 2000 dollars when money is available. Lucy Clampit also spoke on this matter. Lucy made a motion to combine the grants, Mary Harris seconded, all approved, motion passed.

NEW BUSINESS: Lucy said we have a slate of officers to present at the meeting during the March Auction: for President, Dave Green; Vice President/Program Chair, Darwin Alder; Treasurer, Angie Haneiko; Recording Secretary, Rusti Stover; Corresponding Secretary, Lucy Clampit. There were no further nominations.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS: Darwin said the April program will be about the Flower Gardens coral reef.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Rusti Stover said she never heard back from Lynn Blair, who was moving and had shells for sale. Rusti also announced that the Sea Shell Searchers would be holding a shell show the first Friday and Saturday in May, and the venue would be inside the museum. More information will be forthcom-ing. Rusti mentioned that Friday the 15th on a birding trip, she and Gary Olson went over the Rollover Pass bridge in Gilchrist on Bolivar Peninsula, and the west side of the bridge was laid out with many long pipes for bringing up sand to fill in the pass, so it appeared that the work might be starting soon. She tried to find more information but could not.

The Annual Auction will be held on Saturday, Continued on page 3

February Minutes

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Visit HCS online at

www.houstonshellclub.com

President: Angela Doucette 713-523-0169 Vice President: Darwin Alder 713-256-9087

Treasurer: Sandy Clark 713-778-8539 Recording Secretary: Rusti Stover 713-614-4882 Corresponding Secretary: Jerry Clampit 713-468-0610

CALENDAR 3/2 HCS Auction

4/28 HCS Meeting

5/18 HCS Banquet

6/17 COA begins

5/3-4 SSS Shell Show

Sea Shell Search-ers Shell Show The SSSSS will be May 3rd and 4th at the Bra-zosport Museum of Natu-ral Science. Please mark your calendars, and de-cide whether you want to exhibit. This is always a fun event even if you don’t prepare a display of shells. As soon as more details are available, an email will be sent to members.

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THE EPITONIUM VOLUME XXVI, ISSUE

Continued from page 2 March 2, 2019 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights, starting at 10 a.m.

There being no further business a call for ad-journment was made. Darwin adjourned the meeting at 2:44 p.m.

Sarasota Shell Show A Huge Success Story By Dave Green

The Sarasota Shell Club held their 56th An-nual Shell Show at the Potter Building in Sarasota on February 8-10. As I reported previously on Florida shell shows, the Sara-sota show was a huge success story and filled with visitors viewing exhibits in the scientific area and crafts area, plus buying shells from the dealers in attendance. The Sarasota Shell Club also turned away exhibitors and dealers this year, and attendance was also up over last year. They have a wonderful loca-tion and the people of Sarasota came out to support the event. The Sarasota Shell Club did a great deal of advertising by television, radio and printed fliers throughout the area. Most of the time, you could hardly move around due to the heavy participation.

Linda and I showed our 32 ft. scientific ex-hibit of Abalone that we had showed in Mel-bourne two weeks earlier. We had to remove 4 cases, or 8 total feet, from the exhibit to meet their maximum length of 32 ft. on sci-entific exhibits. Apparently, that did not cre-ate any issues with the two scientific judges, Dr. Harry Lee and Dr. Jose Leal. Linda and I won the Mote Gold Award given for Best Exhibit of Show by the Mote Marine Insti-tute, which is only given at the Sarasota

President’s Message By Angela Doucette

The Ides of March are upon us already. There’s so much to look forward to from greener grass and calm weather to sports, so-cial events, parades, etc. To the Mardi Gras revelers – LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULER, HAPPY MARDI GRAS.

We are extremely grateful to the Central Pub-lic Library staff for assisting us in setting up our display during January & February. We certainly hope you will have the opportunity to visit the library soon.

We are excited about the HCS annual auction on Saturday, March 2, at Immanuel Lutheran Church starting at 10:00 a.m. We look forward to seeing everyone there. We will surely miss one of our long-time, dependable cashiers, Dennis Harris. Unfortunately, he passed away in January. We will miss him.

Special thanks to John & Angie Hanieko for their presentation on February 17, on “Shells of Africa.” Congratulations to Dave & Linda Green for winning the DuPont Award at the Astronaut Trail Shell Show.

On March 2 we will elect a new slate of officers for 2019-20.

COA If you plan to attend the Conchologists of America convention and have not made a hotel reservation, you need to do so ASAP. The gathering will be on Captiva Island, FL from June 17-23. Details are available at: http://conchologistsofamerica.org/conventions/.

PAGE 4 THE EPITONIUM VOLUME XXVI, ISSUE

show each year. We also won the Shell of the Show Award, People’s Choice Award, which is voted on by the public in attendance, and the Most Beautiful Award. Needless to say, we were extremely pleased and very happy with the results.

We are now off to Sanibel Island to be judges for the Sanibel Seashell Festival held on the island March 7-9. I will be judging scientific exhibits, but Linda has the hard job of judging all the wonderful craft exhibits. The craft ex-hibits are the largest of any shell show in Florida and just continues to grow each year.

Auction Items

Auction Items

Auction Items

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Auction Items

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Auction Items

PAGE 7 THE EPITONIUM VOLUME XXVI, ISSUE

You Are Invited to

The Houston Conchology Society

Annual Auction Saturday, March 2, 2019

at The Immanuel Lutheran Church

306 East 15th Street Houston, Texas

(map opposite this page)

First silent auction begins at 10:00 am First oral auction begins at 11:00 am

Lunch provided Followed by a silent auction

and another oral auction Sale table, raffle, and door prizes throughout auction

Shells from all major families will be available along with shell books, craft shells and many shell related items. Bring your wish list. There

will be some great bargains.

The HCS is unable to accept credit cards, so please bring cash or a check to pay for purchases.

All lovers of seashells welcome!

Map to HCS Auction

The Immanuel Lutheran Church is located at 306 East 15th Street between Cortlandt & Arlington Streets.

Whether going East or West on I-10, exit at Heights Blvd. (exit 766):

Turn North on Heights Blvd.

Go North on Heights Blvd. to the signal light at 14th Street.

Turn East (right) on 14th. Go 3 blocks.

Turn left on Arlington. Parking

HCS 2019 ORAL AUCTION LIST

Item# Description Donated ByO-1 Large Framed Helmet Picture Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-2 Voluta junonia HMNSO-3 Quilt 3x5 Mary HarrisO-4 Queen Conch w/Book Prescott & HumbirdO-5 Red Pipe Organ Coral Patty HumbirdO-6 Pterynotus orchidiflorus Richard YuillO-7 Cypraea Collection w/Books HMNS & StoverO-8 Glass Snail Patty HumbirdO-9 Bivalve Collection Mary Ann Curtis-Prescott

O-10 Carved Mineral (helmet) Patty HumbirdO-11 Busycon peversum Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-12 Tonna canaliculata Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-13 Capiz Shell Dishes & Place Mats (4) Victoria CraigO-14 Strombus galeatus Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-15 Counted Cross Stitch Patty HumbirdO-16 Cymatium femorale Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-17 Shell Framed Mirror Alder & MustachioO-18 Coral (2) Shelly LeatherwoodO-19 Pleuroploca gigantea (2) Humbird & GlassO-20 Whale Book & Carvings Victoria CraigO-21 Lyropecten nodosus HMNSO-22 Angaria sphaerula HMNSO-23 Cone Collection (18 species, 20 specimens) HMNSO-24 Cypraea venusta HMNSO-25 Lettuce Coral Patty HumbirdO-26 Xenophora pallidula HMNSO-27 Glass Snails (4) Patty HumbirdO-28 Cymbiola pulchra (2) HMNSO-29 Fossilized/Polished Nautilus (3) Patty HumbirdO-30 Spondylus americanus HMNSO-31 Glass Platter Lucy ClampitO-32 Strombus gigas Growth Series Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-33 "Shells Jewels of the Sea" book Harry & Brownie SharpO-34 Latiaxis mawae HMNSO-35 Jim Shore Shells (3) Patty HumbirdO-36 Collection from Tahiti Bruce WoodO-37 Voluta dubia kieneri HMNSO-38 Crystal Shell Patty HumbirdO-39 Counted Cross Stitch Patty Humbird

HCS 2019 ORAL AUCTION LIST

Description Donated ByO-40 "The Book of Shells" Sandy ClarkO-41 Cassis cornuta Patty HumbirdO-42 Wall Display Case Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-43 Glasses & Pitcher HMNSO-44 Lambis chiragra & crocatus HMNSO-45 Framed Scallop Picture Patty HumbirdO-46 Cymbiola imperialis HMNSO-47 "European Seashells" vol. 1&2 books Harry & Brownie SharpO-48 Trigonostoma pellucida & Murex zamboi Curtis-Prescott & HMNSO-49 Small Polished Fossilized Nautilus Patty HumbirdO-50 Lambis truncata & chiragra HMNS & HumbirdO-51 Pleuroploca gigantea (4) Leola Glass CollectionO-52 Lyropecten subnodosus (2) Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-53 Cymbiola nivosa & Amoria damonii HMNSO-54 Tridacna gigas (single valve) Patty HumbirdO-55 "The Living Cowries" book Patty HumbirdO-56 Cake Mold Patty HumbirdO-57 Tonna cannaliculata Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-58 Homalocantha scorpio & anatomica Richard YuillO-59 "Seashells of Tropical West America" book Sandy ClarkO-60 2 Small Decorative Shells Patty HumbirdO-61 Tugutium caribaeum & Xenophoridae Book Curtis-Prescott & HumbirdO-62 Urchin Test & Coral Humbird & Curtis-PrescottO-63 Murex pecten & orchidiflorous HMNS & YuillO-64 Vest w/Shell Trim Bruce WoodO-65 Shell Collection from Vanuatu Bruce WoodO-66 Worm Tubes Mary Ann Curtis-PrescottO-67 Mathilde Duffy Print Patty HumbirdO-68 Painting in Capiz Shell Frame Patty HumbirdO-69 Coral Patty HumbirdO-70O-71O-72O-73O-74O-75O-76O-77O-78O-79