Belle Epoque Diamond & Platinum Necklace, ca. 1905
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GUEST:
It belonged to my great-grandmother, who's from Poland, in a small town outside of Kraków, it's called Bochnia.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And she passed it down to her daughter...
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
...my grandmother, and then my grandmother passed it to her daughter, and then my aunt passed it to me...
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
...when I was much younger. I want to say I was in my mid-20s?
APPRAISER:
Okay, oh, great.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Oh, great.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Do you wear it often?
GUEST:
Not often.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
But I do wear it on special occasions.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm. Well, it's a, it's a beautiful necklace, and it, it dates to about 1905. Platinum had been an industrial metal, and when jewelry artists worked with it, they realized it was much stronger than gold.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So you could use less of it to hold the stones and to make the designs. So they were able to make these light, beautiful designs.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And this was called the garland style. And it's pretty obvious why it was called the garland style.
GUEST:
(chuckling): Yes.
APPRAISER:
There are garlands of flowers.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
You'll also see there's bows. They were drawing a lot of inspiration from this 18th-century Marie Antoinette glamour.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And the women at, at this time were wearing a lot of pale colors, a lot of white silk and lace. So they loved the, the white metal, and most of the jewelry was in diamonds or pearls to, to go with the outfits.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
A couple of things I especially love about this necklace. First, it's with its original box. And then one of the most interesting things is the back of the piece, and I often say, if you want to really know about a piece of jewelry, look at the back.
GUEST:
Absolutely, yeah.
APPRAISER:
So you can see that this piece was originally designed to be worn two ways. There are hooks here...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...to attach the chain, so you could take away the chain. If you look at the center here in gold, it's for a screw. So there would have been a brooch attachment that would have screwed in there.
GUEST:
I see.
APPRAISER:
And if you ever have a piece of antique jewelry in the original box, you always lift up the velvet and look underneath.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
'Cause that's usually where they're stored. So at some point in the past 120 years...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...the brooch fitting went away. It's set throughout with diamonds. There's a mix of old-European- cuts and single-cuts, and you have about six carats of weight there.
GUEST:
Hm!
APPRAISER:
So it's a pretty substantial necklace.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Now, it isn't marked at all, and the box has no markings on it at all.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So we can't tell exactly where it was made. But I'm going to guess it was made in Continental Europe. If I were to recommend an insurance value for this...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...I would recommend that you insure it at about $40,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
If it had the original brooch attachment, I'd probably recommend you insure it at $45,000.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm. Well, thank you so much.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
I, I really appreciate it.
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