The word "rococo" is derived from the French word "rocaille", which denoted shell-covered rockwork.

UNESCO: Culture

Much of the art during the baroque and rococo periods had its origins in East Asia.

ECONOMIST: Global or local?

Even after the shell-laden Rococo movement wound down in the late 18th century, oceanic accents appeared on metalwork.

WSJ: Nautical Home Design: D��cor Takes to the Seas

These walls feature shell-covered works, the original "Rococo" style.

UNESCO: Culture

This water clock, like the whole Rococo palace, had been born of a friendship between the Manchu emperor Qianlong and Giuseppe Castiglione, a Milanese Jesuit whom he commissioned to design it in 1747.

ECONOMIST: Chinese art

To frame the collection, Louboutin has placed searchlights from the Suez Canal (picked up in Cairo and at the Paris flea markets), Syrian columns purchased at auction, two Aztec-like totem poles from Mexico City and a pair of Indian rococo columns found in a Paris antiques shop.

WSJ: The Collector