Chandelier Earrings & Georgian Bracelet
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GUEST:
They're inherited pieces from my husband's aunt, who died in 1991. She was the wife of Jay Marchant, who was a director in the movie industry in L.A. and in Japan.
APPRAISER:
And so you had these two pieces. Did she collect jewelry, also?
GUEST:
She collected antiques-- Asian art, furniture, and jewelry. She wore the jewelry all the time.
APPRAISER:
So the two items you brought, first the boxed bracelet here, this is from the Georgian period, so this would date anywhere from about 1820 to 1840. Most likely, it's English. Although there no hallmarks, stylistically, it's very much in the English style. These reddish, purplish stones are garnets. These stones are beautifully matched. It's unusual to find such large, crystal-clear, beautifully matched garnets like this. They're quite nice. The other stones, the little accent stones, which have a slightly yellowish gold tone to them, these are topaz. These would have probably come from Brazil. It's in extremely fine condition, in the original box. The earrings, they're done with pearls. And I would date these earrings around 1850, 1860. So these would be natural pearls, little diamonds, and these are really a classic chandelier earring in terms of the way that they move. The diamonds in the top are set in silver. The bottom portion is gold, and right at the join here, there's a microscopic French hallmark. So that tells me these pieces were French. They're quite lovely. Have you ever had these pieces appraised?
GUEST:
No, I never have. When she died, there were four of us who divided all her jewelry, and she had between 500 and 1,000 pieces of jewelry. And we found some of the receipts. So there was a receipt for the earrings, and I think she paid $4,500 for the earrings.
APPRAISER:
Do you know what year that was?
GUEST:
It would have been in the '80s.
APPRAISER:
At the time that she bought these, she paid a very fair price for them. And I would say, for insurance purposes these days, they would probably be around the same price, $4,500 to $5,000. The market for these type of earrings had gone up, it has gone down, and now it's just coming back up again. Now, back to the bracelet. The bracelet, also, because of condition-- this is really in exceptionally fine condition-- I would value the bracelet for insurance purposes around $5,000 to $6,000.
GUEST:
Okay.
Appraisal Details
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