Venus Flower Basket

In traditional Asian cultures it was given as a wedding gift (in its dead, dry state) because the sponge symbiotically houses two small shrimps, a male and a female, who live out their lives inside the sponge. In Japan they symbolise the idea of “till death us do part”.

When the shrimp’s offspring are tiny they escape to find a Venus Flower Basket of their own. Once moved in, the shrimp cleans the basket and, in return, the basket provides food for the shrimp by trapping it in its tissues and then releasing wastes into its body.

This unusual yet intriguingly beautiful cross-hatched specimen was extremely popular in Victorian England, and could easily fetch five guineas, the equivalent to over £500 today.