Diamond & Sapphire Jewelry
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GUEST:
This necklace and the ring were bought by my grandmother. I know it's old because she died in 1949. And then this was passed on down to us and there's some other jewelry, but I got this necklace and the ring.
APPRAISER:
And what do you know about these pieces?
GUEST:
Well, the ring I don't know too much. I recently had it looked at, but the jeweler said I need to take it to a gemologist and really have it looked at. My sisters and I were trying to figure out more about the necklace. We saw the mark on the clasp of the necklace that says "M & Co." So looking online, we thought, "Maybe that's Marcus & Company." And then we find out he somehow worked for Tiffany, I think, at some point. And we also want to know, if he made the necklace, did he also make the pendant? Did the two go together? Because they are detachable.
APPRAISER:
Okay, let's start with the ring. The ring... is platinum-topped gold with a cabochon sapphire and surrounded by diamonds. It dates to around, I'd say, 1910 to 1915. Beautiful. This sapphire is gem quality. My estimation, it's probably of Burmese origin, that being a very, very fine quality sapphire that probably has not had any sort of treatments. In order to verify that, it would have to go to one of the big laboratories to have it evaluated, but I've seen a lot of this material, and I'm pretty sure that it is Burmese, surrounded by old mine-cut diamonds. And then you have diamonds down the shoulders. Very beautiful ring. I know that there are restrictions regarding Burmese rubies. The same restrictions do not apply to sapphires. My feeling is, she bought this and then maybe needed something to go with it. So, in comes the necklace.
GUEST:
Blue and diamonds?
APPRAISER:
Exactly. The necklace is slightly later in date, circa 1920s. '20s to '25, I would say. The pendant is detachable from here and it's platinum with diamonds, and then you have sapphires. The necklace is signed "M & Co.," which stands for Marcus & Company.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
He did work for Tiffany around 1850 to late 1800s. He then started his own company, Marcus & Co.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Very famous jewelers known for very high-quality jewelry. Their workmanship is beautiful. So that's the top, the necklace here. You've got about ten carats of diamonds, old European-cut stones. Then you move down to the tassel and the workmanship is so beautiful. They even set the stones around the bezel and along the sides here of this pear-shaped drop, which is not small by any means, either. That is about two and a half carats just for the pear shape. Then you have this gorgeous tassel with this beautiful decoration here of calibre-cut sapphires. Very, very fine work. However, it's not signed.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
So. We definitely know Marcus & Company made the necklace, but we do not know if they made the drop.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
It's possible, because the workmanship is certainly their quality. It's very, very beautiful. At auction, I would give a price of $25,000 to $35,000 for the ring.
GUEST:
For the ring?
APPRAISER:
Yes. That sapphire is fabulous.
GUEST:
Holy crow.
APPRAISER:
And then the pendant necklace, the auction estimate would be $30,000 to $50,000.
GUEST:
Wow. I'm afraid I don't know what to say. That's incredible.
APPRAISER:
They're really beautiful pieces.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh. Fantastic!
Appraisal Details
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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