Bullis´ Collection

MURICIDAE - Pteropurpura bequaerti (Clench & Farfante, 1945) - Florida

In November 1997, our dear friend Leonard Hill suddenly passed away at the age of 49. Len’s passing was a significant loss for all of us. Shortly after his death, his partner contacted us and offered to sell Len’s extensive collection of shells and stock. We decided it would be a good idea to acquire it and closed the deal. However, by the time we went to pick up the shells, his partner had changed his mind and decided to sell the collection himself.
At Len’s memorial service, Jose sat next to Bob Work, a mutual friend and colleague. During their conversation, Bob mentioned that Len had been in the middle of negotiations to purchase a remarkable collection from Harvey Bullis. Harvey Bullis was well-known in our community as the former head of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Exploratory Base in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He had a distinguished career, leading numerous dredging expeditions throughout the Caribbean, from the southern United States to northern Brazil. Bullis's work had led to the discovery of many new deep-water species, several of which were named in his honor.
Understanding the significance of Bullis’s collection, Bob provided Jose with Harvey Bullis's contact information, enabling us to continue where Len had left off. We managed to take over Bullis’s collection, which was no small feat. Harvey Bullis had passed away in 1992, the same year that Hurricane Andrew had caused widespread devastation across Florida. His impressive collection of marine specimens had been scattered across his garden, though fortunately, many of the shells were preserved in plastic bags.
Transporting the entire collection back to our location required several trips. Despite the challenges, we were thrilled to discover that some of the most fantastic pieces we had ever seen were part of Bullis’s collection. At that time, digital cameras were not yet in common use, so I captured images of the collection using my trusty Nikon FM2, shooting on slides. Later, I meticulously scanned these slides to create digital versions of the images (some of which can be seen here).
Over the years, we have sold thousands of shells from this incredible collection. Interestingly, these shells occasionally resurface in old collections, giving us the opportunity to take better-quality pictures with modern equipment and sell them again. The legacy of Leonard Hill and Harvey Bullis lives on through their remarkable collections, which continue to fascinate and delight collectors and enthusiasts around the world.

- These photos were digitalized from originals (slides or paper) so the quality is not as high as the photos you are used to see in our website.