The Peter Coke Shell Gallery | Visit East of England

The Peter Coke Shell Gallery in Sheringham contains an exhibition of almost 200 stunning shell-art sculptures and beautiful arrangements, made with shells from all over the world – all the work of one man. Peter Coke (1913—2008), actor and playwright, made the delicate sculptures during his retirement, from shells he had collected all his life.

The Peter Coke Shell Gallery in Sheringham is housed in part of the historic, restored, longshore fishermen’s shed on West Cliff. It contains an exhibition of almost 200 colourful and stunningly realistic sculptures and arrangements made with shells from all over the world, all the work of one man – Peter Coke (1913—2008), actor and playwright, famous for his role as Paul Temple in the BBC radio series. Peter Coke made the delicate and detailed sculptures and pictures of gardens, castles, flower bouquets and more during his retirement, from the shells he had collected all his life from all over the world. Visitors can see the astonishingly intricate shell-art creations, sculptures created from two-dimensional geometric arrangements. These include the Sailor Valentines on which Peter Coke began his shell-art work. The exhibition includes shell pictures in the Chinese style, shell encrusted boxes, obelisks and figures, flower arrngements, and finely detailed model garden scenes in three dimensions, as well as temples.