Joe "Iron Man" McGinnity Ring, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
This is a ring that belonged to Joe "Iron Man" McGinnity. He is a Hall of Famer, and this ring was given to my great-great-great-grandfather. He was the brother-in-law of Joe. It was passed down to my dad and then down to me.
APPRAISER:
Joe, as you say, was a Hall of Famer.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Pretty incredible guy. How did he get his nickname Iron Man?
GUEST:
Well, he worked in an iron foundry.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, because a lot of people think because he was a great baseball player with, you know, durability and longevity, they think that's how he got the name.
GUEST:
Right. Right.
APPRAISER:
But it actually came from his job in the off-season.
GUEST:
Yes. That's right.
APPRAISER:
Serpent rings throughout history, for thousands of years, have this mythological mystery about them. In 1839, Prince Albert gives Queen Victoria an engagement ring, which is a snake ring with her birthstone in it. And all of a sudden, with fashion in anything, it becomes popular. You start to see three-headed snakes emerge in that Victorian period in England. This ring was probably manufactured in the late 1800s. It could be right around 1900...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...because you're starting to see the incorporation of platinum with what looks like 15-karat gold. The diamond in the center is an old European cut. It weighs 0.35 carats. So about a third of a carat. And then you have the ruby and the sapphire, which are just under half a carat each. There's no hallmarks inside, but they were probably there at one time. And because the ring has been repaired so many times and it's been sized a few times-- I can tell-- they may have disappeared with all that work, but the ring looks English to me. So when we value something like this, we have to factor in the fact that it was owned by him. It's not a baseball ring. And actually, back then, they really didn't give rings that much. They gave pendants.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Figuring that it belonged to him, I think it adds ten percent more...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
...to the value. So for auction purposes, I would say $3,000 to $4,000.
GUEST:
Wow. That's great.
Appraisal Details
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