Jet Black: Purveyors of fine Whitby jet

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A Warm Welcome...

World famous Whitby jet is perhaps as well known for it's history and metaphysical properties as it is for it's opaque, intense black colour - the origin of the terms "Jet black" and "As black as jet" often used in music and literature.

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The jet jewellery displayed here started life over 180 million years ago as Monkey Puzzle trees (Araucaria) which, under immense pressure, became fossilized and eventually buried in the upper lias shale. A lignite, and distant relative of the diamond, jet has been used by man to make jewellery since the bronze age when it was highly revered for it's healing, spiritual and protective qualities.

Although found in larger quantities throughout the world, any Yorkshireman will tell you that the hardest, finest quality jet to be found anywhere is along the seven mile stetch of coastline between Whitby and Kettleness, known as the fossil coast.
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Ever popular, it wasn't until the late 1800's that jet found it's heyday. Favoured by Queen Victoria, in the wake of her husband Albert's death, the popularity of jet jewellwry reached it's zennith in the 1860's. At it's peak the industry employed at least fourteen hundred people in and around Whitby in jobs ranging from mining to retailing, however, with the popularity of jet, came a host of imitations such as Vulcanite, French jet (black glass) and bog oak. By 1936 there were just five jet workers left in Whitby, the last of whom died in 1958.

In recent years, thanks to celebrities and royalty wearing jet jewellery, this mysterious, ancient stone has recieved a resurgence of popularity perhaps heralding another golden era for Whitby jet. At Jet Black we only use the hardest, finest quality local jet, all set on 925 sterling silver mounts, fittings and chains.