Green Glass & Diamond Ring, ca. 1920
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GUEST:
My mother bought the ring about 20 years ago. I think she paid around $500. It was in a little jewelry store that had an estate piece section. And we think it's a cabochon emerald, and that's all we know.
APPRAISER:
Okay, did you know the diamonds are real?
GUEST:
Uh, hoping.
APPRAISER:
You didn't even... You didn't even know that? Okay. Well, it is yellow gold, and the diamonds are all set in platinum. This ring has all the earmarks of being fantastic. All this is hand-set, hand-done. The ring is handmade-- it's not cast. It's a one-of-a-kind. But I'm sad, sad to tell you that the stone is not real.
GUEST (laughs)
APPRAISER:
Now, this stone is a top-grade French glass. And the French were magnificent in making glass.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And they made the emeralds, the rubies and the sapphires... It fools us all the time. When I first saw this, I thought it was real.
GUEST (laughs)
APPRAISER:
And that's why I grabbed it off your hands, see?
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
So, you can get a real emerald for this, but you're gonna pay a lot of money to match that color.
GUEST:
Oh, sure, sure, sure.
APPRAISER:
So just don't tell anybody that it's not real.
GUEST:
No. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
And you can go on. $500 is a very fair price for the whole ring.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
If the emerald was real, see, it would be another $10,000.
GUEST:
(laughs) But it's not that.
APPRAISER:
Will you still enjoy the ring?
GUEST:
I will.
APPRAISER:
Did you ever ask your mother if she knew it was glass?
GUEST:
She didn't know-- she didn't know.
APPRAISER:
Oh, she also didn't know.
GUEST:
But when you said, "Here, wait here," and we waited, I said, "It's either good or bad that you get put on TV."
APPRAISER (laughs)
Appraisal Details
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