The sea turtle’s gold-flamed carapace for a long time made tortoiseshell popular as an exotic adornment of luxury items. Harvesting tortoiseshell is extremely difficult and necessitates the application of heat to detach the carapace from the skeleton. A 75-kilo hawksbill sea turtle yields no more than a paltry 2.5 kilos of tortoiseshell! The value we attach to certain materials can change over time. These days, tortoiseshell ornaments on instruments are more likely to evoke opprobrium than admiration.