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Whenever the name of Whitby is mentioned it is always associated with the manufacture of jet, jet itself was first used as ornaments and there is some evidence to prove that jet was used for adornment of ancient inadvertence of Britain. Skeletons are being found in the tumuli of the districts with little beads of material around their burial surroundings. Also around Whitby Abbey's ruins in the soil jet rosary beads and crucifixes were also found which indicated that the local habitants were using Whitby jet.

whitby jet

ANTIQUE VICTORIAN CARVED WHITBY JET

MOURNING BROOCH


Whitby jet originally was monkey puzzle trees about 190 million years ago during the Jurassic period. When the trees y died some of them were taken into the water of rivers and eventually ended up in the sea. The trees then would become heavy with water and sink to the bottom of the sea. Over a period of time they would be covered by thick layers of sand and mud, which compressed the trees under the sheer weight of the water above. This enormous pressure of the sea over the millions of years caused what was the monkey puzzle tree to become the material we now call jet.
Local history indicates that a gentleman the name of John Carlill was stated to be a jet worker in the year 1598. What you might call the modern manufacture of jet really began around 100 years ago with the first tools and machinery being very crude, although the actual skill of the workers themselves produces some very fine works and was a testimony to their skill.


The jet workers themselves were encouraged to join the trade because of the extremely good wages for the times and even the crudest of Works produced good financial return and the town was transformed into a busy moneymaking hive of jet workers. The majority of the actual jet workers only work part of the week and did their exceptional sums of money for the times.

 


Jet was introduced to the Court of Queen Victoria following the mourning of a husband and this had a very positive effect on sales of jet, causing even more influx of work and money into the town. Unfortunate around this time that the country was flooded with cheap productions of synthetic jet which were manufactured all over the world and sold as the real substance in September 1904 decision was taken before the Bradford Stipendiary Magistrate's Court regarding the influence put upon the sales of these spurious productions.


Whitby jet is still very popular today and there is a great wealth of Victorian original Whitby jet work which can be bought at relatively good prices. Great caution should be taken to make sure when buying
Jet is a fabulous substance but there are a lot of other substances that look very similar. So I’ll give you some ways of making sure that if you’re thinking of buying some Jet you buy the genuine article, especially since Whitby jet has become quite expensive over recent years.
The term jet black means there is absolutely no doubt that jet is black in colour and if the material you’re looking at is not totally black, then it’s not jet. So that’s the first way of testing visually, just checking the colour in good light. If the jet has been polished it has a very nice sheen to it.
Secondly is to feel the jet itself, which should be light in weight, most people expect jet to be heavier than it actually is and also it should have a warm feel to it. There is a type of glass which has the term French jet but this is quite heavy when felt and has a glaring type of reflection.
Whitby jet that it is the actual substance and one of the easiest ways to test this is by rubbing the jet on piece of sandpaper, if it's the real substance it will leave a light brown stain.
We begin is still sold prominently in the town there are number of outlets and its popularity has never declined over recent years.

 

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