Featured Finds Thread

Thanks. I couldn't believe no one else scoped it and scooped it!

 

Finally got this to load. it's the other photo. I think the earrings are amethyst and iolite. It's hard to see without a light behind.

 

Thanks. The bots have been having a field day. I wish we could block them.

 

It is a great find, but it doesn't have the sheen and intense blackness of my Whitby jet pieces. This type of locket is usually gutta percha or vulcanite. My guess is yours is the first.

Some antique Whitby jet jewellery from a shop in Whitby, so they know their stuff:

https://eborjetworks.co.uk/product-...shop/whitby-jet-jewellery/antique-whitby-jet/

 

Thanks, that makes it very clear even when not in hand.
Not solid black - not Whitby jet
Inside decoration - not Whitby jet
The bail looks like an attachment which is impossible to make in Whitby jet.
As I said, Ruth's locket, while pretty, is not Whitby jet.

Some more info, including lookalikes (I have posted these two links before):
https://whatiswhitbyjet.com/2020/08/20/how-to-identify-antique-whitby-jet-jewellery/

And the lookalikes:
https://gem-a.com/gem-hub/whitby-jet-rings-necklace-jewellery-simulants/

 

Nice!

 

I found a new thrift I missed for years. I think some are restrung. Did they string on wire back in the day? One broke while they were wrapping them, so it was a freebie. The jeweled clasps on the dark green and lavender are marked Czechoslovakia. I left a few really short ones, regretting it, wasn't sure the beads were vintage....$6 each.
The broken beads are also marked Czechosolvakia on the bejeweled clasp. You can see the wire they are on.
Below, a type of bakelite? $3

Beliw, posting on the jewelry boatd, $3, new clasp.

 

The colored beads look like they've all been restrung - probably had to be if they were on cotton. Cotton dies with a dirty look. Old improperly done wire restringing comes apart. I'd say the bracelet looks too new to be bakelite.

 

That's a great site, thank you!!!!!!

 

Jet for sure . I checked. No doubt whatever.

 

I don't see Whitby jet. There are different types of jet, like the Spanish jet mentioned in the link. But none of them have the deep black colour and the sheen of Whitby jet.

Even if the photos don't show the locket to its advantage, and the resemblance I see to gutta percha is not there in real life, or there is no lighter coloured wear above the hinge, there is still #10 in the link Davey posted, the one about inside decorations.

 

It left a brown streak, and I showed it to Bear who concurred that it's jet. Also, I read Davey's link and...no match to gutta percha, not in person.

 

Do we know what color streak gutta percha or Vulcanite would leave?

It's tough from photos:





Agree with AJ that the high gloss of polished jet is not there. The brown that tends to be in crevices after long aging is not characteristic of any jet I have seen, but I have seen it on molded pieces. Jet seems quite stable while the other materials begin to decompose. The decoration on the front cover is attached, not carved as a single piece.* I can't tell from pix how the hinge is put together. All in all, I think it looks molded rather than carved.

* I don't know whether molded pieces were ever decorated with carved jet, whether the bird could be jet while the body not.

 

The brown you're seeing is dust and dirt. I have gutta percha here and this ain't that.

 

If I had it in hand to really feel texture, weight, even smell it, I would have a much better idea of the nature of the piece. With photos alone... Have I ever mentioned I hate black stuff? [She says knowing full well she has said it often & loudly.] I have cameos in jet frames, jet Zuni carvings & black lava but none of the jet simulants on hand to train my eye.

This is not definitive, of course, but the 2 lockets I spotted among the jet jewellery here are both shiny black:

https://www.morninggloryjewelry.com/articles/reference-information/jet-by-helen-muller/

 

As is my Whitby jet jewellery, which leaves a black stripe on the back of a white tile.

I don't have any gutta percha jewellery at the moment, but I have a vulcanite brooch that leaves a brown stripe. It is also very lightweight.
It is of a lighter tone than most vulcanite jewellery, so the stripe is also lighter:

 

I could have been wong, but if it's vulcanite it's still black black. I have a cameo that was reset into a black setting. That might actually be jet. Someone got creative and cut down a cameo with no frame to fit into a frame with no cameo.

I like black glass, black amethyst glass, dyed onyx etc, and grinned like a fiend when what I think are bog oak earrings turned up. They were in a $15 box with a CHUNK of a 10k Rebekkahs medal - pink and green enamel, fully inscribed and all. If they're not I wouldn't cry too hard.(LOL)

 

Vulcanite is often very black, and in that case the stripe is darker than the one in my photo.
Vulcanite jewellery can be very detailed and beautiful, but the value is much lower than jet jewellery, especially Whitby jet.