The Jet Industry

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THE JET INDUSTRY

A topic for recording information, advertisements, and examples of the work of those involved in the Jet industry.







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Whitby Jet Ornaments.–The principal and most interesting manufacture in Whitby is the making of jet ornaments. The material itself, which is a comparatively rare production, is found only in the neighbourhood of Whitby. The ancients gave the name of "gayates" to the jet found on this coast. An earring of a lady, who had been buried in one of the tumuli or burrows was found, which must have been there before the time of the Danes in England. Jet crosses and rosaries probably were made in Whitby during the period of monastic rule. In the time of Elizabeth, there is no doubt of its being made into ornaments, as the name of "John Carlile, of Whitby, Jet Worker," appears on a deed dated April, 1598, or 284 years ago. The manufacture seems to have declined, or perhaps ceased, until the year 1800, when a painter, named Robert Jefferson, and one John Carter, who kept a public-house, a native of Bedale, began to make beads and crosses with files and knives. A neckguard, made in this primitive manner, was sold for 21s. The manufacture of jet ornaments gradually increased, and a very important industry has been created from small beginnings. Many imitations in glass and other inferior materials have been made; but, on account of the beautifully soft, velvety polish, and intense blackness of the Whitby jet, it is not likely to be superseded. There axe ornaments made of inferior jet, but are valueless; their low prices are a sufficient guide to their inferior quality. The best Whitby jet will wear for years. The origin of jet has never been satisfactorily decided. It was generally considered to have a ligneous origin, but further investigation has adduced evidence against such an hypothesis, the conclusions of Mr. R. Hunt, which were given in the "Art Journal," May, 1856, being " That some bituminous matter, separating from the alum shale, during the process of consolidation, has distributed itself between the laminations of the shale, and insinuated into the cavities formed by wood or stone. The hard or best jet, of which the finest carvings are made, has a conchoidal fracture, highly electric, has much tenacity and elasticity; it is lighter than coal, highly combustible, giving a greenish flame, and strong bituminous odour." A great number of the population obtain their means of living from the manufacture of jet into articles of personal adornment.

Source: Bradley's new guide to Whitby - Thomas N. Bradley - 1884

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B.H. FRAMPTON

66, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne


Newcastle Royal Jubilee Exhibition - 1887

WHITBY JET MANUFACTURES

An exhibit which will be a centre of attraction and source of instruction to visitors will be Mr. B. H. Frampton's Whitby jet manufactures. Inside the handsome and elaborately constructed stand three skilled artists, from Whitby, manufacture from the crude Whitby jet highlyfinished ornaments. The origin of this beautiful material is a subject on which there is considerable difference of opinion. It has frequently been described as coal, but it is generally believed to be bituminous. The jet is found embedded in rock in masses of various forms and magnitude. One famous mass was reported to be 20 feet long by 6 feet wide. In mining the jet from the rock it is generally broken into small pieces, but occasionally some are obtained three or four feet long by about a foot wide. As the masses occur in all parts of the rock, months of labour are often spent in vain. There are two distinct kinds of \Vhitby jet – the hard and the soft or oolitic jet. A Spanish soft jet which has been introduced into the market is very brittle, and when exposed to atmospheric influences its surface has a tendency to crack. This jet is, however, capable of a high polish, and its beautiful appearance renders it a dangerous article for unskilful buyers. It is often sold for the best jet" and this is one reason why ladies, who have experienced breakages with the so-called "best" article, become prejudiced against jet of any superlative description. The prime cost to manufacturers of Whitby hard jet varies from 8s. to 16s. per pound, and in some cases eighteen-pence to nineteen-pence per ounce has been paid. Foreign jet is imported and sold to manufacturers at Whitby, from 10s. to 30s. per cwt. When lumps of jet are obtained suitable for working, they are sawn and split into the required form with saws and chisels. They are then taken to grindstones, where a flat surface is given. All the subsequent operations necessary to prepare the various ornaments for sale are performed by hand machines. A sort of lathe is used in which stones, boards, and brushes aro the means of bringing the articles into their proper shape. All round work, such as beads, studs, and rings, are turned on the lathe with fine tools. In hand engraving, some very exquisite specimens of the jet workers' art is produced. Fruit foliage, flowers, and endless varieties of designs are executed with surprising closeness to nature. The manufacture of jet ornaments has become one of the staple trades of Whitby. Besides all kinds of jet goods, Mr. Frampton exhibits a brilliant array of French jewellery and fine cut crystals.

Source: The Monthly Chronicle of North-country Lore and Legend - Walter Scott - 1887


The was the business of Boyseman Harland Frampton.

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THE JET INDUSTRY

Wherever the name of Whitby is mentioned it is known in connection with the manufacture of Jet Ornaments. When jet was first used for ornaments, neither modern science nor research has determined; certain it is, however, that there are proofs of jet articles having been used for the adornment of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, for skeletons have been found in the tumuli of the district with beads of the material buried with them. In the palmy days of the Abbey, rosary beads and crucifixes were used, indications and remains of such having being found among the ruins. Both Solinus and Bede speak of jet being obtained in Britain; and Camillus Leonardus tell us in his "Mirror of Stones" that it was called by the ancients Gargates, and Black Amber. The same author makes early mention of the peculiar property it possesses of attracting to it, when rubbed, light substances of all kinds. The thin smoke produced by this process, he tells us, was used for driving away devils, dissolving spells and enchantments and diseases. If mixed with the marrow of a stag it assisted in healing the bite of a serpent. A translation, by Camden, runs:–

Peat-stone, almost a gem, the Lybians find,
But fruitful Britain sends a wondrous kind;
'Tis black and shining, smooth and ever light;
'Twill draw up straws if rubb'd till hot and bright.

Crosses were possessed in the neighbourhood until a recent date which were known to be as old as the reign of Elizabeth. Local history states that a certain John Carlill followed the occupation of "jet-worker" in the year 1598. The, what we might term modern, impetus given to the manufacture of jet ornaments began in the early part of the present century. Though, at first, the implements and machinery were very crude, the ingenuity of the workers and the encouragement given them by the public soon mastered these obstacles, and very soon ornaments of the most beautiful form and workmanship were turned out, some of which for artistic finish might rank with the finest efforts of art. Workmen were attracted by the high wages earned by even the crudest hand, and soon the jog-along-quietly nature of the town was transformed into a busy money-making hive of jetworkers, who in the majority of cases worked only part of the week and earned most exceptional sums of money. Subsequently it was introduced to the Court of Queen Victoria, followed by a period of Court mourning, which brought still greater prosperity to the trade. The question will at once be suggested: What has been the cause of the lamentable decline of the industry? In reply to this it must be stated that there are two kinds of jet–hard and soft–and it is the use of the latter, which is a far inferior and cheaper commodity, that has brought discredit to the trade. There may have been outside influences at work to depress it, but unfortunately the one mentioned has been the most important factor. When profits were high, mines were opened out in the district and excavations made into the cliff for the jet, but, subsequently, on the importation of the article from Spain and France, this was given up, as the imported material came in such quantities that the market was completely glutted. Owing to a variety of causes this trade has been in a sadly depressed condition for many years and it has been felt by the principal manufacturers that unless immediate steps were taken it would be threatened by extinction in the near future. Many things have operated to bring about this disastrous state of affairs, fashion probably playing no mean part therein; but the makers themselves point to the fact that the country has been flooded with cheap productions manufactured out of soft foreign jet or other materials still less approaching the qualities or properties of "Real Whitby," as the principal cause. These inferior goods quickly lose their polish and easily break, thus being a constant source of annoyance and loss to the retailer–besides bringing his goods generally into discredit when sold–gradually came to e looked upon as bad stock, and he ceased to push their sale, even in many cases giving up keeping them at all. There being no system of classification or marking the better class of Whitby jet goods they, of course, suffered with the others, and the whole trade gradually fell into disrepute, both with the retailers and with the buying public.

It would be out of place in this Guide to take up space with a description of the methods employed in the making of the beautiful ornaments seen displayed in the shop windows, as visitors to the town have ample opportunities of inspecting them for themselves. Jet is a bituminous substance, and when found very often resembles in form pieces of wood, sometimes looking like a large tree trunk.

Source: Horne's Guide to Whitby, Profusely Illustrated: Giving a Detailed Description of Places of Interest, Streets, Roads and Footpaths in and Around Whitby - Horne & Son - 1897

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TURNBULL BROTHERS

Whitby, and, 63, Northampton Street, Birmingham, and 51, Hatton Garden, London



Turnbull Brothers - Whitby and Birmingham - 1858


Turnbull Brothers - Whitby and Birmingham - 1863


Turnbull Brothers - Whitby and Birmingham - 1867

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W. CRAWFORD

2, Huntriss Row, Scarborough



W. Crawford - Scarborough - 1886

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Jet is still mined to a limited extent in Whitby, on the northeast coast of England, where it has been mined and worked for many centuries. Fifty years ago the jet industry here gave employment to 1500 persons, but to-day there are only 30 workers, many of them old, as the returns are poor owing to the fall in the price of jet. English jet also suffers from competition with Spanish jet, which is harder and more brittle.

Source: The Mineral Industry - 1911

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REVIVAL OF ENGLISH JET TRADE

[From the London Times]

The war has caused a partial revival of the jet industry at Whitby. The Whitby jet trade, which in 1860 employed 1,000 men, and a dozen years later was estimated at something approaching $500,000 in value, had fallen to very small proportions, owing to changes in fashion and to the introduction of foreign shoddy material. But the limitation of foreign trade, owing to the war, and the difficulty of obtaining sufficient black glass raid other substitutes for bangles, brooches, hatpins, and dress ornaments, together with the prevalence of mourning, has created a fresh demand, and all the local workers are now again busily employed.

The decadence of this English jet industry was described by Consul Chase, at Leeds, in Daily Consular and Trade Reports of March 16, 1911, as follows:
Whitby, on the North Sea coast in this district, has been the home of the jet industry of England. Jet is still mined there and made up into ornaments for personal wear, but only to a limited extent, fifty years ago it was a flourishing industry, giving direct employment to 1 ,500 people in Whitby; now not over 30 are engaged in its production, generally old people, and no others are taking it up. The price of rough jet has fallen in that time from 25 cents an, ounce to from 75 cents to $2.90 per pound.

One old Whitby worker now plies his trade in Leeds and exposes his wares for sale at the city market twice a week. He is the only one so engaged in this city. Some Spanish jet, which is harder and more brittle than the English variety, is imported into England. Fashion has decreed the disappearance of this once important industry of Whitby.

Source: Commerce Reports - Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce - United States Department of Commerce - 1915

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JAMES A. GILL

5, Golden Lion Bank, Whitby



James A. Gill - Whitby - 1880

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WHITBY JET

Jet, a sort of semi-jewellery in its usual applications, is one of those many substances which have a kind of mysterious brotherhood with coal. The beautiful pearly white paraffin for candles comes from coal; so does the benzoline which we use in our handy little sponge lamps; so do the gorgeous magenta and analine dyes and pigments; and so, some people think, does jet. In this last-named instance, if coal is to be mentioned at all, we should rather say that jet is a kind of coal, not that it is produced from coal. Be this as it may, jet, a shining black substance, is found in seams dissociated from all other black minerals; not in the coal regions, but in other districts of England, notably near Whitby, in Yorkshire. It occurs also in Spain, in Saxony, and in the amber districts on the Prussian shores of the Baltic.

Scientific men, in the language of mineralogy, say that jet is a variety of coal; that it occurs sometimes in elongated masses, sometimes in the form of branches, with a woody structure; that its fracture is conchoidal or shelly, its lustre brilliant and resinous, and its color velvet black; that it is about twenty per cent. heavier than water; that it burns with a greenish flame, emits a bituminous odor while burning, and leaves a yellowish ash. But the Whitby folks can adduce many reasons for thinking that jet, in some of its forms at any rate, must have been at one time in a semi-liquid state, quite unlike coal derived from a ligneous origin. Mr. Simpson, curator of the Whitby Museum, states that that collection comprises among its specimens a large mass of bone which has had the exterior converted into or replaced by jet. This jet coating is about a quarter of an inch thick. The jetty matter appears to have entered into the pores of the bone, and there to have hardened; during this hardening or mineralizing process, the bony matter has been gradually displaced and supplanted by jet, the original form of the bone being maintained. Another reason for thinking that the jet or some of it, must once have been in a gummy or semi-liquid state, is that bits of vegetable and miucral substances are sometimes found imbedded in it, as flies, wings, and small fragments are in amber. Cavities and fissures in the adjacent rocky strata are also sometimes found filled with it, as if it had flowed into them originally. The stratum called "jet-rock," in which the Whitby jet is mostly found, is a kind of shale, when distilled, yields ten gallons of oil per ton. That in a remote geological era there was an intimate relation between this oil and the jet is very probable; though its exact nature cannot now be determined. The Yorkshire coast for many miles north and south of Whitby is a storehouse of jet. The deposit occurs in the lias formation, the jet-rock being interlaid with other lias strata. Two kinds are found in different beds or layers, the hard and the soft jet. The hard, which is in all respects the best, occurs in detached compact layers or pieces, from small bits no bigger than dominoes to pieces of many pounds' weight. The largest piece recorded measured six feet long, five to six inches wide, and an inch and a half thick; it weighed nearly twelve pounds. The British Museum refused to give ten guineas for this fine specimen; whereupon it was sold for fifteen guineas to a dealer, who had it carved into crosses of exceptionally large size.

For how long a period jet, or black amber as it was at one time called, has been found and worked near Whitby, no one can now say; but the time certainly ranges over many centuries. In a tumulus or barrow opened in the vicinity of the town, was found tie skeleton of a lady–supposed to have been ancient British before the date of the arrival of the Danes–and with it was a jet earring, two inches long by a quarter of an inch in thickness, shaped like a heart, and pierced with a hole at the upper end for the reception of a ring or wire. The substance was, in the middle ages, made at Whitby into beads and rosaries, probably by the monks or friars.

As a branch of regular trade, Whitby jet work was of not much account till about the beginning of the present century. The Spaniards made the principal beads and rosaries for Roman Catholic countries of a soft kind of jet; but when English ladies began to wear jet as mourning jewellery, the superior hardness of the Whitby material induced some of the townsmen to attend to this kind of work. The first workers employed nothing but knives and files in fashioning the ornaments; but one Matthew Hill gave an extension to the trade by finding the means of turning the jet in a lathe–a more difficult matter than turning wood, owing to the brittleness of the material. In a short time there were ten or twelve shops in Whitby, where jet beads, necklaces, crosses, pendants, and snuff boxes were made and sold. About thirty years ago, Mr. Bryan, the chief representative of the trade, obtained the largest " find" of jet ever known, from a spot in the neighborhood called the North Bats; it comprised three hundred and seventy pieces or " stones," valued at two hundred and fifty pounds. There were fifty workshops engaged in the trade at the time of the first Great Exhibition in 1851; the number now exceeds two hundred.

According to an interesting account of this industry by Mr. Bower, the jet is obtained by two modes of operation, cliff-work and hill-work. Pieces of j et washed out by the sea from fissures in the face of the cliff are, indeed, sometimes picked up on the beach; but these are few in number, unreliable for purposes of regular trade. In cliff-work, portions of the face of the cliff are hewn down, until seams of jet are made visible; and the jet is picked out from these scams so long as it can be got at. This is somewhat dangerous employment, owing to the precipitous nature of the cliffs. In hill-work, diggings are made in the Cleveland hills, near Bilsdale, about twenty miles inland from Whitby. Tunnels are driven' into the hillsides, driftways and lateral passages are driven, and jet-rock is thus laid bare in various spots; picks and other instruments extract the pieces of jet, which small wagons running upon a tramway bring to the tunnel's mouth. The find is always precarious, especially in cliff-work; sometimes no jet is obtained in a month's work ; while, in other instances, a lucky hit will bring to light a valuable harvest. At present the hill-work is most adopted, and there are about twenty small mines at the Cleveland hills. The men rent the workings, as at the Cornish copper and tin mines; their profits represent their wages, and depend on the ratio between the richness of the seam and the rent paid; insomuch that the miners have every motive for exercising judgement and discrimination in the bargains they may make. The best hard jet will realize, when in large pieces, thirty shillings per pound; whereas the poorest soft pieces are barely worth a shilling a pound; these extremes are separated by many intermediate gradations of value. The Whitby hard is the finest jet known, having more toughness and elasticity than any other, admitting of more delicate working, and taking a higher polish. On the other hand the Spanish soft is better than the Whitby soft: and experts say that many ornaments sold in the shops as genuine Whitby, came from beyond the Pyrenees, and were never made of Whitby jet at all. They look well at first, but are apt to break up under the influence of sudden heat and cold, and are in other respects far from durable. This fragility is believed to be due to a small percentage of sulphur which most Spanish jet contains.

Let us suppose that pieces of jet, varying much in size and shape, are brought to the workshop. The rough jet has a kind of exterior skin or crust, often marked by impressions of ammonites and other fossils, and presenting various tints of bluish brown. This skin is removed by means of a large chisel. At the sawing-bench the piece is then cut up with saws. This process requires much discrimination, seeing that the size and shape of the piece must determine the kind, size, and number of ornaments obtained from it; the great object is to waste as little of the substance as possible. From the saw-bench, the jet passes into the hands of the carvers and turners. The turning is effected by a careful use of small lathes. The carving is effected by grinding rather than cutting, grindstones of various kinds being used, and the jet applied to them in succession–first to grind away, and then to polish. In this way most of the beads, necklaces.bracelets, crosses, brooches, lockets, chainlinks, etc., are made, as well as bas-reliefs, floral designs, and monograms. A clever workman will get twenty per cent, more value out of the same piece of jet than a man of less skill and judgement, by adapting his design to the size and shape of the piece. Soft jet is much wasted during working, by the presence of fibres, grit. etc.; it is therefore better fitted for beads than for intricate ornaments. Much use is made of the cutting mill, a disc or wheel of soft metal, about eight inches in diameter; the edge, or rim, made sharp and set in rapid revolution, cuts the jet. quickly and smoothly. The surfaces of the carved or turned ornaments are polished by being held against the edge of a revolving wheel, covered with walrus or bull-neck leather, and wetted with copperas and oil The edges, scrolls, curls and twists, require that the wheel edge shall be covered with list; and then comes a final application to a brush-wheel. The beads for necklaces, bracelets, etc., are put together with strong twisted threads and small wires. Chains are made by turning- and carving the links separately, splitting some of them, and inserting the unsplit into the split links; small wires are inserted where necessary, and the split closed up with a cement of shellac and resin. Pendants, ear-drops, etc., are linked in a similar way. Some of the jet, when rough-cut at Whitby, is bought by Birmingham jewellers, who finish it according to their own taste.

Whether jet forms a suitable material for small ornaments is surely a matter of taste, as it is in regard to coral, black pearls, and bog oak. The jet trade is increasing, and now gives employment to fifteen hundred hands in Whitby and its neighbourhood. The influence of fashion is shown in a remarkable way when the death of any great personage at court is announced, such as that of the Duke of Wellington, or of the Prince Consort; at such a time Whitby can hardly meet the sudden demand for jet jewellery suitable for mourning. Once now and then, however, the joy of the nation is the sorrow of jet dealers. When the Prince of Wales lay prostrate with illness, dealers purchased somewhat largely, in order to be prepared for eventualities. When the Prince recovered there was a larger stock of jet jewellery ready than the public wanted, and so the commodity did not "look up " in the market.

Whitby and Birmingham are trying to improve the designs for jet carvings and turnings; and there is no doubt room for improvement. When a new start was given to the trade at the first great Exhibition, the Art Journal engraved some new designs suitable to this peculiar material. The beneficial result was seen at the next Exhibition, eleven years afterwards; and still more decidedly at the second of the two annual International Exhibitions, when jet ornaments took their place in the jewellery display of that year. Two or three years ago, the Turners' Company of London having offered prizes for meritorious specimens of turning in wood, ivory and other material, the judges were agreeably surprised at having placed before them a vase turned in jet. The Whitby maker had skilfully cemented two or more pieces together, to obtain a sufficient bulk of the substance for the purpose ; and his honorary reward was, the Freedom of the City of London. Jet is usually found in such thin seams, that nearly all the ornaments made of it are flat and of small thickness; cementing is occasionally adopted where two pieces are suitable for being joined face to face; but all attempts to work up fragments, cuttings, turnings, and powder into a paste of homogeneous mass, have hitherto failed. This can be done with amber, and with the meerschaum clay for pipe-bowls; but no mode has yet been devised for adopting the same course with jet.

As in most other trades, a love of cheapness acts frequently as a bar to the attainment of any high degree of technical skill. A shopkeeper will show his lady customer two jet brooches or necklaces almost exactly alike in appearance; she is prone to select the cheaper of the two, regardless of the fact that the other presents higher claims as a specimen of art workmanship. If called by its right name, an excellent material of recent introduction would deserve much commendation; but when announced as imitation jet, and still more when allowed to pass for jet itself, it deserves the censure that is due to all shams. We speak of ebonite or vulcanite, a very tough material, prepared with India rubber and other substances, smooth and black, but not taking so high a polish as jet. Black glass does duty for a large quantity of cheap mourning jewellery, innocently supposed by many of the wearers to be jet. Another substitute is wood-powder, blacked, moulded and hardened. A still more remarkable material is paper pulp, cast or pressed into blocks, rolled into sheets, cut up, ground on wheels, blacked and polished. But, naturally enough, these substitutes for the genuine article find no favor in Whitby.

Source: Locke's National Monthly - 1873

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GODFREY HIRST

42, Baxtergate, Whitby



Godfrey Hirst - Whitby - 1881


Hirst - Whitby - 1881


We have received from Mr. Godfrey Hirst, of 42, Baxtergate, Whitby, a number of "Jet Mosaics," and we have much pleasure in calling the attention of the trade to these goods, as they deserve and will certainly meet with extensive patronage. The object of the inventor was to produce ornaments suitable for half-mourning and for general wear, in preference to ordinary jet ; and by inserting a substance of any desired colour, relieved again by artistic designs in jet, he has produced an article of great elegance. This method of ornamentation enlivens the sombre aspect of ordinary jet, without injuring the quiet tone which makes jet jewellery so dear to those who like ornament without conspicuous display. The coloured matter is laid into not on, the jet bv heat pressure, and cannot be removed without destroying the jet itself It will not fade on exposure to light. Any colours or shades can be obtained, and the matter may be either translucent or opaque. Mr Hirst also manufactures plaques to be let into cabinet work, &c, and the effect is most successful. Specimens of brooches, bracelets, &c, can be viewed at the office of this journal.

Source: The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith - 5th September 1881

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JOHN KIMMINGS

27, St. Nicholas' Street, Scarborough



John Kimmings - Scarborough - 1869

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GREENBURY

14, The Arcade, Princes Street, Edinburgh



Greenbury - Edinburgh - 1880

This business is perhaps to be identified with either Edward Greenbury, or Matthew Gale Greenbury, both being Jet manufacturers at Whitby.

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F.R. WINTERBURN

14 & 15, Silver Street, Whitby


F.R. Winterburn - Whitby - 1879


A disasterous fire occurred yesterday morning inthe jet ornament manufactory of Mr.F.Winterburn, Whitby. A large and valuable collection of jet ornaments intended for shipment to Canada was entirely destroyed and the building was considerably damaged. The loss is estimated at several thousands of pounds.

Source: The Times - 3rd March 1880


Mr. F. R. WINTERBURN, jet manufacturer, of 14, Silver-street, Whitby, recently submitted to us a number of the best of jet lockets, with monograms, made to the order of a leading London house; and we must admit that they are a credit to the manufacturer. The general thinness of the locket, the clear and graceful outlines of the well-designed and well-carved monograms, and the closeness and neatness of the fitting, give these goods a light and most elegant appearance.

Source: The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith - 5th July 1881

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Whitby Jet Frauds

At Bradford yesterday, Albert Fasnacht, and Eleanor Winter, Darley-street, Bradford, were fined respectively 40s and costs, and 20s and costs for selling imitation jet brooches as Whitby jet. The Board of Trade prosecuted. It was stated that formerly in the Whitby jet trade 1,500 persons were employed, and the annual income from the production and manufacture of jet articles was £150,000 but the trade had been crippled by the importation of imitation goods from abroad. The Board of Trade wanted it to be known that goods sold as jet must be jet.

Source: The Times - 22nd September 1904

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THOMAS BURWELL

20-21, Westborough Street, Scarborough



Thomas Burwell - Scarborough - 1869

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JOHN JACKSON

16, Westborough Street. Scarborough



John Jackson - Scarborough - 1876


ART MANUFACTURES IN JET

We have great pleasure in calling attention to the Art-productions in Jet of Mr. John Jackson, of Scarborough, to whose good taste in design and skill in workmanship our fair friends are indebted for some of their most attractive ornaments. Before doing so, it will be well to say a few words on the substance itself, and on the processes it has to undergo before it is made ready for wear as ear-drops, necklets, brooches, or what not. That the use of Jet for ornamental purposes was known to the earliest races of our island is abundantly testified by the fact that necklaces, pendants, studs, armlets, and other personal ornaments, are frequently discovered in the course of excavations in the grave mounds of the Celtic period, and many of them are of remarkable design, and of elaborate character. Examples of these early ornaments of Jet have been from time to time engraved in these pages, and will also be found in Jewitt's "Grave Mounds and their Contents ;" and " Half Hours among some English Antiquites ;" Evans's " Ancient Stone Implements;" Greenwell's "British Barrows;" and other works. It is pleasant to know that the manufacture of Jet ornaments, which was followed by the Ancient Britons some two thousand years ago, has, like pottery also made by them, been continued to our own day, and that the strides that have been made in design and manipulation, are only the result of that development of idea, and of manipulative skill, which is the result of a gradual advance of civilization. The barrows of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, and to a less extent other counties, have yielded many fine examples of Jet necklaces, studs, and pendants; and there is reason to believe that at least some of these were made by the tribes of Yorkshire, and of Jet from the very same localities as it is gathered from at the present day.

Jet, it is hardly necessary to say, is a resinous variety of lignite–a fossil wood; as Professor Phillips observes, it is simply coniferous wood, and in their sections it clearly shows the characteristic structure. Not unfrequently in its natural state, impressions of Ammonites and other fossils are found on its surface. It is one of the most valuable products of the Yorkshire coast, and is a dry, buoyant, and inflammable substance ; in its rough state, of a dingy brown colour, but (being capable of taking a high degree of polish) of the most intense black–" jet black" as the common expression has it–when worked. It is found in the cliffs in the neighbourhood of Scarborough and Whitby, but by far the greatest quantity is obtained from various parts of the country near to Swainby, Thimbleby, Osmotherley, Scondale, Bilsdale, Snatherdale, Rosedale, and other villages and hamlets in the neighbourhood of Northallerton. There is also an inferior quality of Jet imported from Spain. Although resembling in some respects, and stated by some writers to be a species of coal, Jet is considerably harder than Cannel coal, the kind it most closely resembles, and is much more compact in structure. There is another noticeable fact in connection with Jet, that whilst it is not infrequently found in mining for ironstone, near the villages above mentioned, it is not found in proximity to coal mines; and whilst coal is discovered in nearly all parts of the world, Jet is almost exclusively confined to three or four localities. Jet is found at various depths from the surface, the land above being mostly hilly and barren, or covered only with furze, ling, heather, &c.

The process of procuring the Jet is interesting. Unlike mining for coal, the shaft instead of being vertical is taken horizontally, the operations commencing on the side of a hill ; and when a seam is discovered, it is usually worked by the men day and night by relays until the seam is exhausted. It is, however, at the present time, found only in very limited quantities, compared to what it was some years since; the rough material is consequently much dearer than formerly. The surface of Jet in its rough state is generally of a slate colour, or a yellowish brown, and is known in the trade as " blue skinned," "yellow skinned," &c. It is divided into two classes, called "hard " and " soft." Of the " soft" is made only the commonest kind of goods, the "hard" being used for all the best work. When ground on the grindstones, Jet emits a peculiar bituminous smell, more or less varied according to the different localities from which it has been taken.

The first process in the manufacture of Jet ornaments is called " blocking out," which is simply removing, by the use of sharp chisels, the top surface or crust of the pieces of Jet, and forming them into the shape they are most suitable for. The pieces are then ground on small, but rapidly revolving grindstones, into more shapely and smoother forms ; being thus prepared, they are ready to have patterns sketched upon them. If they are intended for cut-out brooches, a variety of tools are brought into requisition, consisting of drills, knives, small hand-saws, circular saws, files, &c. When the patterns have been worked out, the pieces are made smooth with fine emery, and afterwards with rotten stone; they are then taken to the buff and shag wheels and finished with rouge.

There are a variety of other processes in the manufacture of the different varieties of Jet ornaments, such for instance as turning, facetting, cutting and shading, fluting, engraving, dull cut work, fruit, flowers, cameos, monograms, &c. Jet is made into brooches, bracelets, eardrops, chains, necklets, pins, pendants, crosses, lockets, paperknives, buckles and clasps, rings, scarf slides, buttons, beads, shirt and collar studs, sleeve-links, solitaires, dog whistles, cigar holders, &c.

In brooches–by the workers in Jet, among whom Mr. Jackson ranks as one of the most successful of manufacturers–a large variety of patterns is produced. These are not only in Jet alone, more or less elaborately worked, but with engraved, or cameo, or mosaic, or carved ivory centres, of exquisite workmanship. Ear-rings are, of course, among the most usual of articles in this material, and their design is legion. Bracelets, long chains, necklets, solitaires, pendants, links, crosses, and numberless other trifles are also extensively produced, and each has bestowed upon it the same skill in manipulation, and the same good taste in design. Whether in actual openwork –in some instances, but to a minor degree, reminding one in all but colour of Chinese ivory carvings–in ordinary carving, in geometrical and other patterns, or in a combination of carving, openwork, and engraving, the productions of Mr. Jackson are, so far as we have seen, all that can be desired. We especially direct attention to some of Mr. Jackson's monogram brooches and bracelets, in which not only are the designs exquisitely carried out, but the arrangement of dead openwork engraving on the polished ground of some, and the entire brightness of others, produce a remarkably pleasing and artistic effect. Other very successful brooches are the famous Ammonites, polished, and set in Jet with gold mountings. Crosses, too, are a great speciality of Mr. Jackson's productions ; and these are designed and manufactured in the purest taste, and form the most elegant of all pendants. We have seen nothing in Jet to equal those submitted to us by this manufacturer, and we have no hesitation in pronouncing his productions to be of the highest standard of excellence.

Let us add, in conclusion, that articles manufactured in Jet are not necessarily alone suitable for times of mourning. When judiciously used in connection or combination with high class Roman cameos, Florentine mosaics, Bohemian enamelled paintings, Swiss ivory carvings and medallions, Oriental pearls, crystal or French paste, Russian malachites, coral, ammonites, designs in gold, box and glasses for miniatures, hair devices, &c, the effect is pleasing in an eminent degree, and the ornaments are becoming at every season, and with every style of dress.

Source: The Reliquary - John Russell Smith - 1879

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WILLIAM McBEAN

36, St. Nicholas' Cliff, Scarborough



W. McBean - Scarborough - 1869



The Bankruptcy Act, 1869

In the County Court of Yorkshire, holden at Scarborough. In the Matter of a Special Resolution for Liquidation by Arrangement of the affairs of Charles Henry Ridley, of St. Nicholas-street. Scarborough, in the county of York, Glass and China Dealer. The creditors of the above-named Charles Henry Ridley
who have not already proved their debts, are required, on or before the 8th day of October, 1873,'to send their names and addresses, and the particulars of their debts or claims, to me, the undersigned, William McBean, of Marine-promenade, Scarborough aforesaid, Jet Ornament Manufacturer, the Trustee under the liquidation, or in default thereof they will be excluded from the benefit of the Dividend proposed to be declared.–Dated this 23rd day of September, 1873.

W. McBEAN, Trustee.

Source: The London Gazette - 26th September 1873

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ITALIAN JET


M. Gugenheim, Inc. - New York and Paris - 1914

Some jet is known as 'Italian.' That appellation is used to distinguish it from 'Whitby' jet, which is mined. Contrary to its name, Italian jet is not found in Italy, but is a manufactured composition.

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FRANCATI & SANTAMARIA

65, Hatton Garden, London, and Rome


Whitby Jet
Made by Francati & Santamaria, an Italian firm domiciled in London. Some of the larger pieces, intended for wall ornaments, bore exquisitely carved medallion heads in high relief, and in sets of jewelry the jet was used-with admirable effect as a setting for cameos and mosaics.

Source: The Centennial Exposition Described and Illustrated: Being a Concise and Graphic Description of this Grand Enterprise, Commemorative of the First Centennary of American Independence. - J. S. Ingram - 1876

Noted as exhibitors at the Fisheries Exhibition of 1884.

See: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=28030&p=113372&hilit=francati#p113372

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