When the Dutch East India Company ship Witte Leeuw sank in 1613 to the west of Africa, it was carrying a variety of Indonesian, Filipino and African shells. (Fig. 1.1) Its cargo also included Asian spices, Chinese ceramics, gemstones and jewellery. The vessel, which was on its way from Bantam, Indonesia, to Amsterdam, was one of many sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ships that took Asian shells to Europe where they entered elite collections and played an important role in European networks of humanist friendships. In addition to natural and polished nautilus shells, highly-prized nautilus shells whose surfaces had been carved with figurative scenes and botanical patterns by Chinese craftsmen were also imported. These were often characterized as “Indian” (indianisch) in European correspondence, travel records and collection inventories between c. 1500 and c. 1700. Mentioning a nautilus in his treatise on “the relics of bloodless animals,” the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), for example, identifies the shell as coming from “the Indies” (ab Indis). At times, the treatise specifically refers to the “West Indies” (Occidentalia India/India Occidentalis), but overall uses the generic term “India” to denote Asia as well as the Americas. In his World Book of 1534, the German humanist Sebastian Franck (1499–1543) explains that there were three different regions called “India.”