In yesterday's post we looked at hairwork, jewellery made of hair to remember a loved one. Let's continue the mourning jewellery thread focusing on jet pieces.
Jet, a material found in Whitby, Yorkshire, indicates the fossilised remains of driftwood from the Toarcian Period of the Lower Jurassic.
Jet became the favoured material for jewellery after the death of Prince Albert in 1861.This fashion spread especially at the highest levels of society, becoming so popular that Whitby experienced a boom. Workshops producing jet ornaments grew there from 2 shops employing 25 people in 1832 to 200 employing 1500 people (among them men, women and children) in 1872.
There were workshops producing hand-carved pieces (as jet is hard and dense it was easy to carve it), but also manufacturers that mass-produced pieces turned on lathes.
It wasn't actually only Queen Victoria's obsession with mourning that turned black jewellery into a trend. The increased demand was also dictated by a change in fashion in the 1850s and 1860s for heavier fabrics (for mourning, black crepe or bombazine clothes were favoured), which were well suited to relatively large items of jewellery. Indeed, while some pieces were more delicate, there were also more substantial jet necklaces featuring large medallions representing a female head (a metaphor for the night) surrounded by roses and leaves, and incorporating engravings such as epitaphs to honour the dearly departed, but jet was also used for elaborate parures that included necklaces, brooches, bracelets and earrings.
In yesterday's post, we highlighted how hairwork represented a certain degree of intimacy: the hair jewellery worn on the skin was almost a symbolic and wearable personal travelling reliquary, hinting at a physical connection between the wearer and a loved person or a dearly departed. Jet pieces, left matte or polished to a high shine, were instead often grand, fashioned according to the styles of the day. There were still some similarities between hairwork and jet jewellery, though, first and foremost the weight: jet is light and this meant that even more substantial pieces could be worn without discomfort. Besides, just like hairwork, not all jet jewellery was made specifically for mourning.
While jet was in high demand, the supplies were not sufficient, so quite often fans of the trend turned to alternative materials, including expensive onyx or black-enamelled gold, but there was also a parallel market for cheaper jewellery made of bog oak and vulcanite, a type of rubber. Dark glass - known as "French jet" (manufactured in Bohemia) or "Vauxhall glass", were also good substitutes for jet. Some pieces made with French jet, such as tiaras, were fashioned for the highest level of society as only members of higher classes would wear them.
British society publication The Queen stated in 1892 that "a superabundance of jewellery is in especially bad taste at seasons of mourning", but that "a few trinkets...must be worn, if only to accentuate the general sombreness of the costume". This is the main reason why we have seen members of the royal family wearing pearls at various events in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday. A couple of days ago, Queen Consort Camilla, stepped out in London with her husband King Charles III in a black dress and a four-stranded pearl necklace with a round diamond front clasp, a diamond knot brooch and a blue Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet. On second thoughts maybe she overdid it a bit with the diamonds, who knows maybe she didn't read The Queen's 1892 memo.
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