Whitby jet and ammonite brooch

This unusual brooch is formed from an ammonite set in Whitby jet. An ammonite is a fossilised mollusc whose coiled shell provides one of the most immediately recognisable and attractive fossils.

In the mid-Victorian period, this ammonite would have represented far more than just a decorative artefact. Its existence was linked to a very new and controversial idea - evolution. Fossils had been one of the key discoveries which first set Charles Darwin's thoughts moving towards the theories which were to revolutionise our view of the world.

Fossils caused great ideological difficulties to Darwin's opponents, since their great age seemed to contradict accepted biblical views concerning when the earth was created. Wearing a brooch like this in some circles may have been seen as a deliberately provocative act, declaring the wearer's support for Darwin's theory.