This impressive shell still life with the monogram of the unknown artist GM is reminiscent in quality and motif of the Hamburg painter, etcher and art dealer Nicolaus Christopher Matthes. Matthes was an 18th century painter and pupil of J. J. Preißler in Nuremberg. It was in Nuremberg that Matthes met the still life painter and later wife Elisabeth Christina Höll. Elisabeth Christina was taught still life painting by Barbara Regina, who repeatedly rejected the title of court painter due to the restrictions it placed on her work. Both Nicolaus Christopher Matthes’ shell still lifes and those of his wife Elisabeth Christina Matthes are confusingly similar to the present painting. The dark ground characteristic of the Nuremberg School, which lends the composition a touch of tension, can be found here again. Shell arrangements were already very popular in the 16th and 17th centuries and can be found in works by artists such as Jaques Linard and Jan Davidsz de Heem. This tradition was also continued in the 18th century.