Shell, one of the planet’s biggest oil companies, grew out of a Victorian curio shop.
In 1833 a London merchant named Marcus Samuel began importing oriental seashells, prized for decorating mantelpieces and trinket boxes. His sons inherited the trade, pivoted it into bulk oil shipping, and in 1897 named the firm after the family’s old wares. The scallop on every petrol station is a literal shell.
Shell on Brandseum