Shell grotto

It suited the Baroque and Rococo styles (which used swirling motifs similar to sea shells)[1] and often represented the mimicry of architectural features from the Italian Renaissance (themselves copies from Classical times).

The idea of a grotto was originally a means to enhance a dank undercroft, or provide an antechamber before a piano nobile, but later it became a garden feature independent of the house, sometimes on the edge of a lake, with water flowing through it.

The shells were often laid out in strict patterns in contemporary decorative styles used for plasterwork and the like.

Later there was a move towards more naturalistic cave-like grottoes,[1] sometimes showing the early influence of the Romantic movement.

The first recorded shell grotto in England was at Whitehall Palace; James I had it built in the undercroft of the Banqueting House in 1624, but it has not survived.