Ruby & Diamond Bracelet, ca. 1895
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GUEST:
It was given to me from my mother. My mother was a German countess, and her ancestors started in Russia, and then during the Russian Revolution, they fled to France.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
And at that time, they were supposed to have acquired this piece.
APPRAISER:
In France.
GUEST:
In France. It was supposed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette. That's the story I got from my mother. My mother was born in France, and then they moved to Germany, and she was raised in a castle in Munich.
APPRAISER:
You have five beautiful Burmese rubies here. They're roughly somewhere around four carats, maybe four-and-a-half carats.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
In the trade, we call the best rubies pigeon blood-red rubies, and that's what you have here.
GUEST:
(chuckles): Wow.
APPRAISER:
They're bright, and they're not treated, they're natural. And you know the bracelet was made in France.
GUEST:
I... was assuming that it was.
APPRAISER:
Oh, okay.
GUEST:
Since my mother told me that it was Marie Antoinette's, but...
APPRAISER:
Okay, well, Marie Antoinette never saw this bracelet.
GUEST:
Okay. (chuckles)
APPRAISER:
The hallmarks, the double eagles in the head, tell you it was made in France...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...and it's 18-karat gold. The gold is on the reverse side. If you turn it over like that...
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
...you see the yellow gold. The top, all the diamonds, they're very tiny full-cut diamonds. They're set in platinum.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So this is late 1800s when it was made.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Now we...
GUEST:
Not Marie Antoinette. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
Not Marie Antoinette, she could never have wore it.
GUEST:
No.
APPRAISER:
You ever wear this bracelet?
GUEST:
No. My mother used to wear it all the time. In fact, she left it in a car that my father sold, and she realized that she had left it and went back the next day, and it was still in the glove box, so, uh...
APPRAISER:
Oh, my God. (laughs)
GUEST:
I guess I'm fortunate to still have it.
APPRAISER:
A piece like this in today's market could easily sell for somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000.
GUEST:
This piece?
APPRAISER:
This piece, at auction.
GUEST:
I'll hold on to it for a long time, then. (laughs)
Appraisal Details
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