Red turtleshell Red turtleshell was used to embellish clock cases and various other decorative art objects during the 16- and 1700s in Britain and Continental Europe. Its shiny and transparent quality made it a coveted material for inlays in marquetry and Boulle work on clocks and furniture. Red turtleshell was sourced and used in inlays and for the Boulle work seen on early red turtleshell clocks such as Daniel Quare's Year Going Boulle Longcase, made around 1695, as well as his Boulle Longcase With Subsidiary Dials, dating around 1670, his Ormolu Hour-Striking Horizontal Table Clock, made around 1700, and his Striking-and-Repeating Spring Clock No. 47, from around 1708; the Queen Mary Tompion, made around 1693, and the Spanish Tompion, made around 1702, both by Thomas Tompion; and the Silver-Mounted Striking Spring Clock by Henry Massey, attributed to Daniel Quare and dating around 1695. All these clocks are coming soon to Clocktime. Red turtleshell in its raw form is found throughout South America, from Panama to Argentina. It was imported as a raw material and sourced primarily from the hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), with its blond-orange scutes, and the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), with its scutes green on the outside and brown with yellow-to-brown spots on the inside. The scutes were harvested from the turtles using a heating process that the turtles did not survive. Cornelius van Dyk describes some of the characteristics of red turtle shell scutes in his Osteolegia.[1] The trade in red turtleshell (and all tortoise shell–related trade, for that matter) was officially prohibited in 1977 in the conservation treaty known as CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). At the time, more than 45 countries were involved in importing and exporting raw tortoise shell. End Note [1] Van Dyk 1680, 156–157. Reference Van Dyk, Cornelius. 1680. Osteologia, of Naukeurige geraamt beschryving van verscheyde dieren, nevens hare historien, uit de vermaartste, soo oude als nieuwe schrijvers, by en gebragt. Amsterdam: J. ten Hoorn.