Gold Plates & Diamond Jewelry
Watch
GUEST:
These dishes were passed down to me from my grandparents. They were given to my grandparents by Edwin Speidel, who was a jeweler in Providence. My grandfather was a surgeon, and I assume that my grandfather must have operated on one of the Speidels, but I don't actually know the details of that. But they were, then, lifelong friends. The plates were given to them over a number of years. There are ten of this smaller size, and then this larger one. This one was presented in 1959, the larger one, because it's dated. The other ones, I don't know. I was told that they were given once a year.
APPRAISER:
The inscription, beautiful hand engraving, talks about the presentation to your grandparents. Speidel was pivotal in making the expandable watch bracelets that became very popular. He started with ten dollars in his basement with his wife in the later part of the 1800s in Germany.
GUEST:
Hmm.
APPRAISER:
But the connection to your family comes with Edwin, who was one of three sons who he sent over in 1904 to America. They stayed in the family business, where they manufactured chains and costume jewelry. Then, in the later 1950s, they redesign the expandable bracelet and it becomes what everybody knows as the Twist-O-Flex. But let's go back to the dishes. The small one, you said there's a little dispute in the family as to what they're made out of.
GUEST:
So, they're labeled 14-karat gold. The family lore says that they're actually 24-karat gold, and that this was done for excise tax reasons. But nobody has ever verified that fact.
GUEST:
I verified it today, when you weren't looking.
GUEST:
Okay. (both laughing)
APPRAISER:
They are marked "14-karat," and they are, in fact, 14-karat yellow gold. The first plate weighs 400 pennyweights. That translates to 20 ounces of gold in one plate.
GUEST:
Hmm.
APPRAISER:
You got ten of them.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
All right? The larger plate weighs 600 pennyweights. That's 32 ounces of gold. That's a lot of gold.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Now, let's talk about the jewelry. Same family?
GUEST:
Same family. I believe that this jewelry came from my great-grandparents, and he was a brewer in Munich and owned one of the big Munich breweries. Then it was passed to my aunt. I know that my aunt actually went back to Germany in the late 1930s, even being Jewish, and smuggled out a lot of jewelry. I thought that this was some of that jewelry, but, of course, I don't know.
APPRAISER:
Both pieces of jewelry, the ring and the earrings, were most likely made in the early part of the 20th century. The ring, especially, where you have this yellow gold on the bottom and the platinum on top, it's very indicative of jewelry made in the early 1915- 1920 period. You have this wonderful gallery work. Of course, you got two rather large diamonds. They look like they're just under three carats each. They're what we call old European cuts. The other two stones in the middle are about half a carat each. And then you have a wonderful, wonderful mounting. And then you have these beautiful pendant or dropped earrings, maybe 1920, 1925. Now, the diamonds in the earrings are not as good as the diamonds in the ring, but that was very common. Because, a ring you could see, you'd be looking at it. Earrings...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
You didn't have to use stones as clean. You could get away with it. Those stones are easily over three carats each.
GUEST:
The ring we did have appraised about five years ago. I believe it was around $40,000.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
But I don't recall exactly.
APPRAISER:
Just this plate over here and this plate here, if you combine them together, you're looking, just in gold, $40,000.
GUEST:
Mmm.
APPRAISER:
If the other plates were on the table, it's $180,000 just in gold. This is something we deal with today.
GUEST:
Will somebody pay more than gold for something like this?
APPRAISER:
I don't know if the Speidel name will bring that to all the plates, but it might bring a premium to just this plate, for somebody who's a collector.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Though I get the feeling it's never leaving the family.
GUEST:
No. (chuckling)
APPRAISER:
The ring, so, at auction today, it would probably be $20,000 to $30,000 that it would go in the catalogue. But I got news for you-- for insurance purposes, it's no longer $40,000-- it's probably closer to $60,000 or $70,000.
GUEST:
Hmm, wow.
APPRAISER:
That's a big difference there. The earrings, at auction, $15,000 to $20,000. But those would be $40,000 in a retail setting.
GUEST:
Hmm, wow.
APPRAISER:
There's a lot on the table here. Dare I say, very dishy.
GUEST:
(laughing)
Appraisal Details
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