PALLIDULA Page 2 COVER PAGE Littorina saxatilis, Olivi, 1792 Collected on rocks in inter-tidal pools, seaward side of <strong>Shell</strong> Island, near Harlech, North Wales. Collectors: Simon and Gabrielle Aiken, 9/2006. Size: 11–14 mm. Photo courtesy of Simon’s Specimen <strong>Shell</strong>s Ltd.
PALLIDULA Page 3 A PROPHETIC PAINTING by S. Peter Dance Occasionally, I try my very amateur hand at a painting in watercolours, selecting a subject not too demanding, not too large, not too intricate. In my more ambitious moments I choose to paint shells, not the easiest of subjects to portray accurately. Rashly, perhaps, I had promised to do a painting of an Alphabet Cone, Conus spurius, for my friend Harlan E. Wittkopf of Algona, Iowa. For Harlan no object is more desirable than the Alphabet Cone, so called because its markings often resemble letters of the alphabet. Mischievously, I decided to add some embellishments of my own to the natural pattern of the shell I had chosen as my subject. Eventually, the initials ‘H’, ‘E’, and ‘W’ featured in my hastily executed sketch of Harlan’s favourite shell. Tongue in cheek, I dashed it off to him. Harlan thanked me effusively, delighted that his favourite shell had been personalised. From then on he scrutinised closely the markings of each one he found. In truth, using a little imagination, it is not difficult to find letters on this cone shell, but it is a different matter when you are looking for specific combinations of letters. Harlan, it may be correct to assume, was looking for a specific combination - and he found it! One evening, he phoned to say he had picked up an Alphabet Cone on a beach at Sanibel Island, his Three Alphabet Cones from Sanibel Island, collected and photographed by Harlan E. Wittkopf (born 1947). Two display his initials; one of these is also marked ‘47’. happy hunting ground for his favourite shell, on the last day of the year 2005, marked with his initials! A photo of it followed. As if this was not enough, he phoned some weeks later to say he had found another. On one of them, moreover, he had picked out the number ‘47’ - and he was born in 1947! It began to look as though Alphabet Cones marked with his initials could be commonplace at Sanibel, but I knew they weren’t. I suspected, too, that similar combinations of letters and numbers would be less likely to reveal themselves to someone with a different set of initials and a different birth date. Perhaps Harlan’s motto is ‘Seek and ye shall find’. Having found two examples of the cone marked with his initials it would seem that Harlan’s cup was full to overflowing, but there was more to come. Some of his many acquaintances hold influential positions in American organisations, among them someone associated with the United States Postal Service, someone happy to do Harlan a favour. In no time at all he had helped to organise the authorisation and design of an official 39 cents postage stamp, showing a photo of three Alphabet Cones! It was issued in June 2006. Using a lens, it is just possible to make out, on two of the cones, the letters ‘H’, ‘E’, and ‘W’. By a curious chain of circumstances, therefore, my sketchy drawing has led to the creation of another, much smaller, picture that could take Harlan’s initials to the limits of the known world. Had I been able to predict the outcome, I may have sent him a more carefully executed drawing of an Alphabet Cone, one displaying a different set of initials! Watercolour sketch of an imagined Alphabet Cone (Conus spurius Gmelin) bearing the initials H, E and W (and the name of the artist). Postage stamp with a design based on Harlan’s photo, issued by the US Postal Service in June 2006 - a unique contribution to conchological philately.
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