Featured Whitby Jet, Vulcanite, Bog Oak, Gutta Percha, French Jet, etc

If there's wood grain, then it's bog oak.

 

That was my inclination, too.

 

And mine.
It looks like it was pressed (and dried?) in a mold, which you can't do with jet.

 

Maybe @Ownedbybear can help?
Ignore this, for some reason my page didn’t update with the last batch of replies!

 

Jet is more like a stone, or glass. It can't be moulded, as aj says, it was and is carved.

 

Bronwen has not, but it looks clearly like a mass produced jubilee piece. I would say Vulcanite or similar for Her Majesty.

The striations look to me like the result of grinding, not like an internal grain.

Looking at my several cameos set in jet frames, I would say findings were often attached by screwing or pinning in. Because the material is soft, not a very secure way of fixing them on, so you see a lot of ones that have been repaired with an excess of glue. I think many of the large plates some of them have across the back have both pins & glue.







The clasps on these 2 brooches & the hinge on the second one look just like those you see on pieces made in materials where the findings are typically screwed in. It's possible they were also glued as an extra precaution, it's not clear. Both hinges have been repaired. The first has been replaced altogether & is probably now glued on. The second has the aforementioned excess of glue oozed out around the edges, as well as an over long pin replacing the original bar holding the pin stem.

My conclusion is that screwed/pinned on findings are not a guarantee that an item is not jet.