Carlo Giuliano Earrings & Necklace, ca. 1890
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GUEST:
I got it 40 years ago from my ex-husband, who is now deceased.
APPRAISER:
Hm.
GUEST:
We'd been together for a few years and we got married. And I always jokingly say it lasted five minutes. But in that five minutes, he was a very generous man and very, very tasteful. We used to find an excuse to walk past this antique store on 57th Street in Manhattan. I remember seeing this and I s, commented on how much I liked it, and I thought he would get it for me for my birthday. But instead I got my portrait done by Andy Warhol.
APPRAISER:
(chuckles)
GUEST:
And believe it or not, I wanted that more. It showed up at Christmastime.
APPRAISER:
This was your Christmas gift.
GUEST:
This was a Christmas present, yes. He told me it was from the 1700s. That was about all I knew about it.
APPRAISER:
Would you know what your husband might have paid for this?
GUEST:
You know, I can't guess, but I'm sure it was expensive. I was wife number four. So I don't know how many gifts like this were given. But he was a good customer and they knew him by name.
APPRAISER:
It's a Renaissance Revival 18-karat-gold necklace done with very delicate enameling. We've got cabochon peridots and cabochon rubies of two separate colors. The rubies are like flashlights under a U.V. light, which is a sign of very strong fluorescence. So these are Burmese rubies. The Renaissance Revival generally starts in the 1840s and ends in the early 20th century. But the sweet spot was 1850s through the 1890s. The style screams Italian Renaissance. This piece is unsigned, but in terms of the hand that made it, it's signed all over the place. The maker's name was Carlo Giuliano. Carlo Giuliano was the master of Renaissance Revival enamel work. He's from Naples, born in 1831. He worked with Castellani in Naples or Rome, and then he was sent to London in 1860. He started hiring himself out making jewelry and making designs for other very famous London jewelry houses. People with royal warrants for Queen Victoria, for example. Queen Victoria loved him. He opened his own store in 1874. Carlo Giuliano dies in 1895. And while his sons carry on the business until around 1910, the work does go downhill a little bit. He's a master. Very few people have this talent for both execution and design work. The earrings have a screw-back closure for non-pierced ears. The date, then, is somewhere around 1890. A fair retail price is between $65,000 and $85,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
Now, for insurance value, you have to insure that piece of jewelry for $120,000 for the set.
GUEST:
Well, thank you so much, Sarah. You're welcome.
Appraisal Details
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