Noun : an elaborate picture frame decorated with shellwork.    From Dictionary.com. 

Rooms come with handsome chimneypieces and exquisite shellwork, and there is a turret-top eyrie for ship-watching.    From Wordnik.com.  [You're the king of the castle] Reference

The Prince still said nothing, only sat, among his gold and shellwork incense-burners, while the images of the twenty-one Old Gods watched his round, pink satin back.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Silent Tower]

This vapor rising around the stem of the plant, and attracted by it, becomes congealed into what we term hoar-frost, in numerous forms; some like shellwork, others like tulips, with radiated petals, variously contorted, and often as symmetrical as snowflake crystals.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures.] Reference

They have belts of shellwork slung across their shoulders, and are armed with bows and arrows, and flint-headed spears.    From Wordnik.com.  [Grandfather's Chair] Reference

She knows French, musick, and drawing, sews neatly, makes shellwork, and can milk cows; in short, she can do every thing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Life of Johnson]

Chandeliers and lamps may also be disfigured by obtrusive shellwork or want of all symmetry, or may amid great decorativeness be kept within reasonable limits.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock] Reference

That had been only a few days ago, and Ray had shown the quilt, so rich and lustrous, and delicate with beautiful shellwork stitchery, -- to the young girls this afternoon.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Other Girls] Reference

Sculptural crafts included shellwork, featherwork, leatherwork, waxwork, and mosaic work, as well as the weird and exotic arts of hairwork, "skeletonizing" and potichomanie.    From Wordnik.com.  [Book-Wyrm-Knits] Reference

Captain Cephas had brought over a bundle of things. but not expensive, as were the fans and bits of shellwork and carved ivories which Captain Eli wished to tie upon the twigs of the tree.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Magic Egg and Other Stories] Reference

These remarkable creations are so utterly tasteless, with masses of bristling shellwork and crude, ungainly statues, that we wondered how anything so inartistic could find a home upon Italian soil.    From Wordnik.com.  [In Château Land] Reference

You know there's always a new fashion o 'frames comin' round: first 'twas shellwork, and then 'twas pine cones, and beadwork's had its day, and now she's much concerned with perforated cardboard worked with silk.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Queen's Twin] Reference

The presents which Captain Cephas brought were much more suitable for the purpose; they were odd and funny, and some of them pretty, but not expensive, as were the fans and bits of shellwork and carved ivories which Captain.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Magic Egg and Other Stories] Reference

This style received its name in the nineteenth century from French émigrés, who used the word to designate in whimsical fashion the old shellwork style (style rocaille), then regarded as Old Frankish, as opposed to the succeeding more simple styles.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock] Reference

We tried to forget the monstrosities of the château garden and to remember only the beauty and the rich luxuriance of its trees and the many flowering vines that clambered all over the shellwork terraces, as if striving to conceal their rococo ugliness.    From Wordnik.com.  [In Château Land] Reference

But she was no nearer to understanding his character; and after restoring Arthur to his sisters 'care, she looked forward to regaining her own room, unwrapping her shellwork box, rereading Sidney's letter and thinking over all she had heard about him that day.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sanditon] Reference

“waganga,” recognizable by their badges of conical shellwork, came boldly forward.    From Wordnik.com.  [Five Weeks in a Balloon] Reference

Mariana) is frequently met with in December, with the base of the stem surrounded with shellwork of ice, of a pearly whiteness.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures.] Reference