---
title: "Jet"
description: "Jet is a hard, deep black material that takes a high polish, found in England near Whitby; mourning etiquette allowed it where other ornaments were barred."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/jet
published: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# Jet

*Jet is a hard, deep black material that takes a high polish, found in England near Whitby; mourning etiquette allowed it where other ornaments were barred.*

Jet is a pure, deep black material, sometimes with a tinge of brown, hard enough to be turned on a lathe and highly polished. An 1858 American encyclopedia says it occurs in England near Whitby, that it was cut and polished for ornaments, buttons and bracelets, and that some mineralogists considered it intermediate between coal and bituminous wood.

## Why was jet worn in mourning?

The manuals give the rule rather than the reason. In 1870 S. Annie Frost allowed only jet ornaments, and only to fasten collar, cuffs or belt, in the deepest mourning; the second stage allowed “jewelry of jet alone,” and in lighter mourning it could be set in gold. John H. Young's 1879 manual says pins and buckles “must be of jet.” The Paris rules Frost reprints are stricter: no jewelry in the first month, and jet trimmings only once the black was lightened.

## Where can you see jet?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art lists jet in the materials of an [American mourning dress of about 1883](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/107007) and of an [American brooch of about 1850](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/16806). The wider system of mourning dress is explained in [Black, and Not Just Black](/techniques/victorian-mourning-dress-crape-and-stages), and the fabric that went with it in [crape](https://teazle.art/glossary/crape.md).


## Sources

1. [Encyclopaedia Americana, vol. 7, Boston, 1858](https://www.loc.gov/item/unk82011083/). Library of Congress (digitized book)
2. [The Art of Dressing Well (1870), S. Annie Frost](https://www.loc.gov/item/10001027/). Library of Congress (digitized book)
3. [Our Deportment (1879), John H. Young](https://www.loc.gov/item/09031599/). Library of Congress (digitized book)

Canonical: https://teazle.art/glossary/jet