Cypraeaman is the business of shells expert Alan Seccombe, who lives in the UK, having returned to the UK after 28 years living in South Africa.  He grew up on the Gower peninsula in South Wales and spent a lot of his formative years studying the natural history of this area with his parents who were both science graduates. 
 

After finishing a natural sciences degree at Imperial College, Alan spent a further 4 years at the Natural History Museum in London studying and working in the entomological department.  Already an avid shell collector, he could not resist the opportunity to relocate to South Africa in 1995, to further his career and of course to grow his shell collection.  
 

During his time in South Africa he built a very large collection of Southern African and worldwide shells, and also started to sell shells to fund the acquisition of specimens for his collection.  At its peak, the collection was housed in 4 rooms in his house in Johannesburg.   Unfortunately, none of his children are interested in shell collecting and other than the core of the South African and Mozambique shells (which will be donated to museums), the South African and Mozambique spares and his worldwide collection is being slowly sold.  
 

Initially focussing on Shellauction (seller: cypraea) and eBay (seller cypraeaman and cypraeamanuk), Alan has decided to offer a large portion of the shells through this new website.  In addition to the popular shell families such as Cypraeidae and Conidae, this website also features many specimens from the less popular families, and Alan’s favorite group of shells, the microshells. 
 

Several species have been named after Alan, and Alan has also described a number of South African species mostly with Roy Aiken.  He is also the joint editor of the book, Identification Guide to the Seashells of South Africa - Volume 1.