This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It has been able to spend time at the museum on loan from FD Gallery Collection.

In this magical brooch, a real snail shell is home to a golden snail covered with diamonds. The piece was handcrafted in the atelier of Hemmerle, a firm with a long tradition of jewelry-making. Stefan Hemmerle wanted to create a pair of snails, a larger one and a smaller one. He recalls, “Suddenly, one of the craftsmen said, ‘You won’t believe it—I have had at home a pair of shells for a long time. One looks like the mother and the other one like its daughter as they are the same color and shape.’”