Tibetan Shell Trumpet: Silver with Semi-Precious Stones Featuring 8 Auspicious Symbols, Based

The conch calls, and silver has gathered around it.

This shell trumpet, mounted in silver with semi-precious stones and featuring the eight auspicious symbols, comes from Tibet and dates to the 20th century. It is shell, silver, turquoise and coral. Tibetan monks blow such conch trumpets to call assemblies and mark moments in ritual, and the conch is itself one of the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism. Worked silver sheathes both ends and most of the body, set with turquoise and coral. Natural shell shows at the middle, behind a dragon and a lotus roundel. Twenty-three inches wide on a black stand.

Its voice is not on display. The silver speaks for now.