This coiled snake bracelet was once part of a Victorian woman's mourning ensemble. In the first stages of mourning the bereaved wore only black, so any jewelry also had to be dark-colored and preferably matte. Jet, mined in the Yorkshire town of Whitby, fulfilled these requirements for mourning jewelry extraordinarily well and was popularly used by the Victorians until the mines were more or less exhausted of their supply. This snake bracelet is composed of faceted jet beads. Typically, this style forms a coil around the wrist, at some point this bracelet was restrung on new elastic cord and tied at the neck and tail to form a crossover design.