NCS
—
Radiant diamonds, sapphires, and rubies have been amongst the most coveted gems on the planet for almost a century. But lengthy earlier than their reign, a far much less dazzling gem captured the hearts of jewellery lovers — and now it’s making a comeback.
Jet, a flat-black, opaque gemstone derived from wooden that has skilled excessive compression over thousands and thousands of years, was the haute stone all through the Victorian era, a time when trend and jewellery deftly signaled an individual’s social standing, monetary wealth and even emotional state. Victorian costume was rife with symbolism and developed round inflexible codes of propriety and caste. Tightly pulled corsets and high hats, to call two ubiquitous gadgets from the era, signified wealth and propriety, whereas jewels depicting doves hinted to a person’s deep non secular devotion.
Surprisingly light-weight and inky-black, jet is one in all the oldest identified gems, and has been carved and formed by the artistically inclined since the Neolithic era (7,000-1,7000 B.C.). Both the Romans and Vikings usual gadgets with jet, starting from buttons and rings to tiny sculptures and protecting amulets. But it was Queen Victoria who delivered jet to trend’s highest heights in the mid-1800s. The monarch wore jet typically, most notably in the second half of her reign; the gem matched the all-black ensembles she wore completely following the dying of her husband, Prince Albert. (Jet has been synonymous with mourning costume ever since.)
“Anyone who was anyone was wanting to wear jet in the Victorian era,” stated British gemologist Sarah Steele, one in all the world’s solely jet researchers. “We went around the world looking for sources of jet — to Venezuela, to the north of Spain — and exported it back to the UK.”
Sustained curiosity in the gem, nonetheless, meant the market was slowly flooded with lower-quality jet that chipped and cracked extra simply, eroding client confidence. Simultaneously, the plastic revolution was accelerating. The in style (and now acutely collectible) jewellery resin Bakelite was invented in 1907, and sure producers even perfected a plastic jet — an efficient, if unintentional, class killer.
All this led to jet’s recognition plummeting. “Everyone was absolutely sick of mourning, and then the first World War happened, and that was that,” Steele added. “We’re actually lucky the industry survived at all.”
So whereas jet has been offered on the memento jewellery circuit for many years, the gem has lengthy been near-universally ignored by trend and “high” jewellery designers. But that may be altering.
A handful of esteemed designers have just lately been embracing jet, incorporating the featherlight gemstone into nice jewellery items stocked by influential shops. And these designers aren’t utilizing simply any outdated jet — they’re purposefully choosing Whitby jet, which is extensively thought of the gold customary of jewelry-ready jet.
Though the gemstone was mined in a number of discrete areas in the 1800s, together with Spain, France, and the American Southwest, Whitby jet fashioned completely underground round the North Yorkshire coastal city of Whitby in England. And “Whitby jet is definitely in the running for the best jet in the world,” defined Steele, who additionally co-owns Ebor Jetworks, an historic jet workshop and retail store in the city.
Whitby jet is famend for being pitch-black in colour and difficult in temperament. Generally talking, Whitby jet gained’t crack or fade over time, like much less hearty, no-name jets are wont to do.
Sussex-based nice jewellery designer Natasha Wightman debuted her first-ever assortment for her model completely at Dover Street Market, a retail idea conceived by celebrated clothier Rei Kawakubo and her husband and companion Adrian Joffe, earlier this 12 months.
Called “Ravens,” the collection options black ravens in mid-flight, intricately carved from Whitby jet by British artisan Graham Heeley and set in gold by native jeweler Ian Fowler. Wightman is intent on completely utilizing UK supplies and craftsmanship in her assortment. Her debut additionally consists of items carved from Moorland boxwood and shed deer antlers she plucked from her yard.
“I wanted to use something that came from our land and country,” she advised NCS. “Jet is one of the oldest materials that has been used for jewelry, and certainly in Great Britain… I loved the romance of that, the history.”
Jacqueline Cullen, whose work is produced in ateliers in London and Whitby, was one in all the first nice trend jewellery designers to make use of Whitby jet, roughly 20 years in the past. Her “Dark Matter” assortment ushered jet into the future: Rounded kinds carved from hunks of Whitby jet are set with black diamonds, leading to jewels that have an effect on little galaxies flickering with dim, tonal sparkle.
The Irish designer wasn’t conscious of jet’s lengthy historical past when she started working with it as a pupil at acclaimed design college Central Saint Martins in London, however since studying about jet’s previous, she defined that she believes the gem’s status and place in historical past is “something it needs to be liberated from.”
“Whitby jet suits my aesthetics and practice,” stated Cullen. “I am inspired by elemental energy and dramatic forces of nature. Hand-carved explosive fissures in Whitby jet embedded with black diamonds makes a perfect combination for representing the vortex of a black hole sucking in and crushing dark matter.”
But for a lot of, the gemstone’s rambling historical past in the UK is a part of its enchantment. (Ebor Jetworks does brisk enterprise round royal celebrations and funerals, for instance.) And the gemstone is as British because it will get. Jet is one in all solely two gems mined in England — the different being Derbyshire blue john, which resembles amethyst streaked with darkish veins and bands.
Heeley, the grasp carver who makes Wightman’s black ravens, stated he’s happy to be one in a protracted line of grasp craftspeople who’ve carved the gemstone in England. And like his jet-wrangling predecessors, he carves it completely by hand. “It’s a soft, flinty material, and you really do need to feel your way into it,” he famous. “A machine probably couldn’t do it exactly the same way, and would you really want it to?”
And if the present fervor for intangible qualities — together with handcraftsmanship and true rarity — in our luxurious items continues, jet is completely positioned to garner extra followers. One might simply think about a trend visionary reminiscent of John Galliano or Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry reviving jet costume buttons (a favourite of Mary, Queen of Scots) and jet cameo brooches, or ordering up a carved jet closure for a bespoke clutch.
An additional draw for trend followers trying to stand out in the crowd is that, in contrast to diamonds and pearls, it’s genuinely uncommon — scarce, even. Jet artisans and retailers are at all times in brief provide. The solely strategy to purchase new jet is to hunt for it the place it’s been flaking off geological formations. Steele and her work associates journey up and down the shoreline searching for free jet that’s washed up with the tide, the solely jet you’re legally allowed to assemble. (The land in and round Whitby the place jet has lengthy been mined is now privately owned.)
“There’s not enough jet out there and you can’t buy big pieces of jet” stated Steele. “We get tourists ringing us for rough jet all the time, and the answer is always ‘no.’”