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Materials
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Jet
Jet
has been used in jewellery for thousands of years because of its
lustrous hue as well as the belief that it had magical powers. The
ancient Greeks and Romans believed that it could protect against
snakes; an idea borne out by a necklace found in York during
excavations of a Roman site that takes the form of a coiled
snake. The stone is fossilised wood from a type of monkey puzzle
tree and is technically a specialised hard form of lignite. Its best
known source in Britain is Whitby on the north east coast but there
were mines all over North Yorkshire where it could be extracted.
Jet items have
been found in a number of
prehistoric sites all over Europe. Small carvings occur with Mesolithic
finds in Germany and Switzerland and Neolithic beads were discovered in
a Neolithic burial in France. The earliest British finds date from the
Bronze Age and are mainly beads and small pieces of jewellery. When it
occurs on excavation sites it is usually in apparently good condition
but it is extremely sensitive to waterlogged conditions and becomes
crumbly when it dries out. Archaeological samples are usually
consolidated in the same way as wood.
Although jet
items continued to crop up throughout history it was not until the
Victorian era that it gained its massive popularity. The Queen was
extremely fond of the material and already wore it before she went into
permanent mourning for the loss of her husband Albert. She ordered that
only jet jewellery could be used at court after Albert died and the
country followed suit. Soon jet could be seen all over Britain and the
industry took off. Many pieces from the Victorian era are large and
ornate and they are frequently combined with other materials such as
ivory or cameo to make quite complex items. It is also possible to find
items in a substance called “French Jet” but they are not true jet and
easy to tell from the real thing. French jet is actually a form of
black glass and is much denser than true jet and feels cold to the
touch.
More difficult to identify are the various other forms of coal that have been used as jet substitutes. Cannel coal and bog oak are very similar to jet but neither has the deep black colour or the sheen that jet has.
Although the History Anorak has a taste for jet jewellery, has some knowledge of the material and owns a few pieces (see the photos) most of the history on this page has been confirmed by reference to a Shire Publication called Jet Jewellery and Ornaments by Helen Muller. J M Cronyn’s Elements of Archaeological Conservation has also been consulted.
Back to materials index
Jet
Jet
has been used in jewellery for thousands of years because of its
lustrous hue as well as the belief that it had magical powers. The
ancient Greeks and Romans believed that it could protect against
snakes; an idea borne out by a necklace found in York during
excavations of a Roman site that takes the form of a coiled
snake. The stone is fossilised wood from a type of monkey puzzle
tree and is technically a specialised hard form of lignite. Its best
known source in Britain is Whitby on the north east coast but there
were mines all over North Yorkshire where it could be extracted. Jet items have
been found in a number of
prehistoric sites all over Europe. Small carvings occur with Mesolithic
finds in Germany and Switzerland and Neolithic beads were discovered in
a Neolithic burial in France. The earliest British finds date from the
Bronze Age and are mainly beads and small pieces of jewellery. When it
occurs on excavation sites it is usually in apparently good condition
but it is extremely sensitive to waterlogged conditions and becomes
crumbly when it dries out. Archaeological samples are usually
consolidated in the same way as wood.Although jet
items continued to crop up throughout history it was not until the
Victorian era that it gained its massive popularity. The Queen was
extremely fond of the material and already wore it before she went into
permanent mourning for the loss of her husband Albert. She ordered that
only jet jewellery could be used at court after Albert died and the
country followed suit. Soon jet could be seen all over Britain and the
industry took off. Many pieces from the Victorian era are large and
ornate and they are frequently combined with other materials such as
ivory or cameo to make quite complex items. It is also possible to find
items in a substance called “French Jet” but they are not true jet and
easy to tell from the real thing. French jet is actually a form of
black glass and is much denser than true jet and feels cold to the
touch.More difficult to identify are the various other forms of coal that have been used as jet substitutes. Cannel coal and bog oak are very similar to jet but neither has the deep black colour or the sheen that jet has.
Although the History Anorak has a taste for jet jewellery, has some knowledge of the material and owns a few pieces (see the photos) most of the history on this page has been confirmed by reference to a Shire Publication called Jet Jewellery and Ornaments by Helen Muller. J M Cronyn’s Elements of Archaeological Conservation has also been consulted.