How Femorale was started?
We have been collecting shells since 1978 and had no contact with other local collectors until 1983 when we went to a Shell Convention of SBMa (Sociedade Brasileira de Malacologia). There we met most of those who are our best friends until today. We also met our good friend Bernardo Linhares from Salvador, State of Bahia and he asked us if we would be interested in selling some of the shells he and his divers used to get when diving for ornamental fishes. Then, we started to sell those shells from Salvador to collectors at our local meetings (which started to happen periodically after the Convention). We then started to exchange shells with some shell dealers in the USA and Europe.

In 1986 José and a friend went to Miami to sell shells to Len Hill there and visited some others dealers as Bob and Betty Lipe (who became our American family!), Al Deynzer and Ed Hanley. Two years later we went together to the USA for the first time. We participated in the St. Petersburg shell show in February of 1988 and that was our most exciting trip until then. We both spoke English poorly and we only had common shells for sale with us. We liked it so much that we decided to go to COA convention in July of the same year in Fort Myers, Florida.
In 1989 we went to Europe for the first time and visited many shell collectors, dealers and participated in a shell show in London.

We officially opened our business in June 9th, 1989. We have already sent some lists and had received good response from the shell collectors, most of whom became very close friends.

We traveled to many places as American Samoa, Antigua & Barbuda, Arab Emirates, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Bolivia, Cayman, Chile, Colombia, Cook Is., Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, England, Fiji, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Greece, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Liechtenstein, Luxemburgo, Majuro (Marshall Is.), Mexico, Monaco, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé & Príncipe, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Croix, St. Vincente & Grenadines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turks and Caicos, Uruguay, USA (Many states including Hawaii and Alaska), Vaticano and Venezuela Trindade Is. (a Brazilian island In the middle of the Atlantic), and of course, several beautiful places in Brazil.

We have been to many shell shows all over the world, and all COA conventions since 1988.

We enjoy everything about our business and we hope to keep doing a good job!

Why Femorale?

In 1985 our late friend Renato Moscatelli offered to print some labels for exhibitions with a shell printed on it. I (Marcus) drew some shells and we have chosen Cymatium femorale. When we had to chose a name for our official business, we decided to keep the logo and the name!