19th-Century Jadeite Necklace
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GUEST:
My great-grandfather was the ambassador to China during the Boxer Rebellion. And my great-grandmother befriended the empress. She didn't like most foreigners, but she did like her. And when my mother was born, the empress dowager sent one of her ladies in waiting to buy a present. And this was the present. There were two of these. My sister has the other one.
APPRAISER:
One of the things about this piece is it is 19th century in terms of the carving. It's jadeite.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And it's a very, very fine quality of jadeite, that brilliant green, and it's extremely translucent. And with a nice coral bead and the little seed pearls that were probably on the original mounting, which would have been just a little silk cord that was through it.
GUEST:
Yeah, probably.
APPRAISER:
And the two characters here are double happiness, xishuang.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
But you have a very, very good piece of jade, but then you have an incredible piece of provenance.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Because one of the things about Cixi was Cixi was the first member of the imperial family who ever did a public relations campaign with the West.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And after the Boxer Rebellion, there were talks about deposing the dynasty on the part of the Europeans.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And they survived it basically through Cixi's bravado and the parties that she had for European women.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
She actually met them.
GUEST:
Yes, she did.
APPRAISER:
She had a European take her photographs. And she gave presents like this. At the time, in the 19th century, this was a very, very high quality piece of jade, but not the best.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
All right, and that was her…
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
…like, slight in the whole thing.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
But nonetheless, we start getting to a value on a piece like this. I'd estimate the value on this as just a nice piece of jade at $30,000 to $50,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh. I'm very surprised.
APPRAISER:
In addition, because of the provenance on the piece, right, this could easily go twice that high end, and that would be at auction.
GUEST:
I'm amazed.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, it's the kind of thing... this pendant, if it were 30 years ago, 700 bucks.
GUEST:
Really? So the fact that it's been in the family all this time...
APPRAISER:
Yeah, exactly.
GUEST:
Has made a difference.
APPRAISER:
It certainly did.
GUEST:
It certainly has.
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