This remarkable sponge was much sought after by museums and private collectors in the past, and most major natural history museums have at least one specimen of this iconic sponge.The Zoological Museum Amsterdam (ZMA) alone has overtwenty specimens and the Natural History Museum in London has some ten specimens.
This sponge was apparently common and abundant in Singapore waters in the early 19th century. According to the second British Resident, Crawford (1830: 73): “…those gigantic sponges, which are peculiar to the coast of Singapore, and which Europeans have called Neptunian cups. The natives brought them to us in great numbers.” This remarkable sponge continued to fascinate even a hundred years after it was discovered, featuring in a popular series of W. D. and H. O. Wills Cigarette cards titled “Wonders of the Sea”