Georgian Sweetheart Ring, ca. 1840
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GUEST:
All I know about it is it belonged to an aunt of my mom who had no children, and so passed on her goodies to various nieces and nephews. She was a wealthy woman who traveled in Europe a great deal, and she was glamorous. So then it came to me, and I've always been fascinated with it.
APPRAISER:
And how long have you had the ring?
GUEST:
Probably since the 1950s.
APPRAISER:
So you think she probably acquired it sometime then or earlier?
GUEST:
Oh, I think much earlier, I'm pretty sure.
APPRAISER:
It's a really lovely, lovely example of what we call a heart ring, or a sweetheart ring, and it's a Georgian ring, so it comes from England. This piece dates anywhere from about 1840 to maybe 1850, 1855, thereabouts. And so it has this classic heart-shaped motif. Sometimes they're called lover's rings or betrothal rings, so it's like two hearts... the hearts coming together. And it's not unusual to sometimes have the stones that are in the center here be the birthstones of the couple. But what's unusual about your particular item here is that instead of a birthstone, it has these two small carved cameos. One is carved opal and the other is carved hardstone. The interesting thing about this is that normally, we see portraitures or faces or sometimes the man in the moon as subject matter. This has a pair of monkey faces. (laughing) I have to say when I saw this, I was just blown away, only because not only was it so interesting, but it's so rare. It has this great bit of whimsy to it. It was obviously a custom piece. And if we turn the ring a little bit, we can also see that it's surrounded by emeralds and rubies, and the back of the piece too is quite extraordinary. It has this beautiful fluted background behind it as well, which is very typical of Georgian rings. This is incredibly rare. I have never seen one like this. My other fellow appraisers have never seen one like this either, and we all agreed it's sort of the bee's knees in terms of...
GUEST:
(laughing): Or the monkey's uncles.
APPRAISER:
Exactly, I'm the monkey's uncle. And so in terms of a replacement value, if you went into a very good estate jewelry shop, you could expect to pay close to $20,000 for this. I know. This is remarkable.
GUEST:
Heavens!
APPRAISER:
This is one of the most interesting pieces I've seen on the ROADSHOW in a long time. It's absolutely phenomenal.
GUEST:
Thank you!
APPRAISER:
It's monkey time!
GUEST:
I'm a little verklempt. (laughing) I'll never wear it again!
APPRAISER:
Just be more careful when you wear it, that's all.
GUEST:
(laughing): Yeah.
Appraisal Details
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