Amber, Coral, Horn, Ivory, Pearls, Shell, Tortoiseshell, Wood, Exotica Jewelry from Nature.

It is baroque and mannerist rather than classical; it shimmers, as if seen through water; it is encrusted with ornament like a coral reef. Venetian craftsmen were well known for their work in satin, where the gleamings and shimmerings of a particular fabric were known as БЂњwatered silk.БЂ«To work in silk was known in Venice as darБЂ™onda allБЂ™amuer, or to make waves on the sea. There is an especial type of Venetian risotto, more liquid than elsewhere, that is known as allБЂ™onda or with waves. A sponge found in the Aegean is known as enetikos or the Venetian. In the last century you could buy in the tourist shops of Venice small ornaments made from the pearl shells found in the Lido, known as fiori di mare or the flowers of the sea. They are the only flowers indigenous to Venice. There are other deep correlations between place and spirit. Venetian society has been described as fluid and ever-changing. Of Venetian politics Sir Henry Wotton, the English ambassador to Venice in the early seventeenth century, said that it БЂњfluctuated, like the element of which the city was built.БЂ«That is the reason why Venetian historiographers were intent upon emphasising the continuity and stability of their society ...»