Queen Victoria loved to dispense tokens of her affection. Favorites received intricate shell pictures from Barbados, traditionally carried to England in merchant vessels. The Queen liked to call them Sailor’s Valentines. She even commissioned a portrait made of shells with her favorite Chinese pug as the subject. The pug, by the way, was called King Dick. King Dick is still reputed to hang in Buckingham palace, and classic shell frames have become highly expensive antiques since then.