Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
September 1777
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 22v
Notes:
Pucelage, literally maidenhood, or virginity, was a phonetic variation of porcelain, the common designation of the Cypraea, or cowry (marine gastropod mollusks), "which had been so called on account of the similitude of its flat bottom with the female sex organ." Paul Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, vol. 2 (Paris, 1963), pp. 805-806
Specimen Type:
Shells
