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Emerald, diamonds broach - UPDATED PICTURES & INFO

Cynthadia

Rough_Rock
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
74
Partner's deceased mother's jewelry collection...

Gemologist's comments:

1. Emerald - not Columbian, nice stone
2. Weight: 10.01 grams
3. Metal: platinum (I believe we need to test)

Weiss21C.JPG
 

diamondseeker2006

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
58,342
Cynthadia, someone already mentioned to you that you should have grouped these items into one thread, because no one is going to go to all the threads and then make individual comments. My other suggestion is that you quickly take some hand shots for the rings and neck shots for pendants or broaches and post them on the threads. Honestly, people have come on here before posting these kinds of pictures that look like they could have simply been copied from a jewelry or auction website, and I fear this is what people are going to think about your pieces unless you add some shots to sort of prove you really have them in your possession. There are some spectacular pieces for sure!
 

Cynthadia

Rough_Rock
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
74
diamondseeker2006|1303217317|2899896 said:
Cynthadia, someone already mentioned to you that you should have grouped these items into one thread, because no one is going to go to all the threads and then make individual comments. My other suggestion is that you quickly take some hand shots for the rings and neck shots for pendants or broaches and post them on the threads. Honestly, people have come on here before posting these kinds of pictures that look like they could have simply been copied from a jewelry or auction website, and I fear this is what people are going to think about your pieces unless you add some shots to sort of prove you really have them in your possession. There are some spectacular pieces for sure!


Frankly, it never occurred to me to post pictures of jewelry that were not in my possession. What a waste of time that would be!

It all started for me two years ago when I was at my partner's home one day. I saw a jewelry box in his closet and asked him if I could look through it. He replied that it was his deceased mother's jewelry box, but that the 4 siblings had already divided up the good jewelry and all that was left in the box was costume stuff.

Always the curious george, I still wanted to look at the stuff. The fact that it was costume didn't matter.

So, I open up this beat up jewelry box. There were approximately 20 pieces inside. Having no experience in jewelry, I, too, was convinced that it was all costume. However, just for grins, I asked my partner if it was okay if I took the jewelry to someone who could tell me if the pieces were costume.

My first (and only) stop was to a pawnshop. I pulled out a big baggie of jewelry and asked the pawnshop owner to take a quick look. The first piece was the gold and angel skin coral ring, followed by a half-dozen gold bracelets, a turquoise and diamond ring, and a few pieces that were actually costume. The last piece was the antique gold, diamond, and enamel necklace. I was almost embarassed to show him the necklace because it was obviously costume jewelry and I didn't want to look like I just got off the turnip truck.

At first glance, he said it was obviously costume. Then, he took out his loupe. He told that the stones looked like diamonds, but they couldn't be because they were crude. Next, he took out his diamond tester and tested approximately 10 of the diamonds. He said that they tested as diamonds, but that there had to be something wrong with his tester. So, he borrowed a tester from another employee. Of course, the stones tested as diamonds. That's when he lost all color in his face. He said come with me, and took me back to the restroom where he invited me in and closed the door behind us. He turned out the lights and took out a light, which he told me he used to test florescence.

He took me back up front and sat me down. These are rose cut diamonds, he explained. This is a very old piece and you should have it appraised by someone who knows about antique jewelry. "It looks to be museum quality, and I have no idea what it's value is." Excluding the necklace, he added up the "value" of the rest of the jewelry. As I remember, it was somewhere in the $17K range.

I had planned to visit one pawnshop and perhaps a couple of jewelry stores that day. However, once I found out I was carrying around at least $17k worth of jewelry, I changed my mind. I went straight back to my boyfriend's house and, from his house, we went straight to the bank where we put the jewelry in the safe deposit box. While at the bank, my boyfriend showed me the "good" pieces. It was just too much for me to take in, so all I did was ooh and aah over the good stuff, but nothing more came of it.

I did tell my boyfriend that he should at least have the antique necklace appraised, which we did on October 9, 2009. As i recall, the necklace appraised at $2700. I spent the next 16 months researching the necklace, mostly because I believed the appraiser appraised the necklace only for its parts and not for its value as an antique. I probably spent 200 hours looking for similar necklaces, but I couldn't find anything that was similar. The appraiser identified the necklace as Georgian, so that's where I looked. I even went so far as to email Ginny Redington Dawes (found her on Facebook) to ask her about the necklace. She was kind enough to reply, but told me the necklace definitely wasn't Georgian.

A few months ago I went to my local library to check out Dawes' book on Georgian jewelry. Once again, I didn't see anything in the book that looked like the necklace.

Then, a fee of months ago, my boyfriend and I went to a very small antique show. One of the jewelry vendors took a look at the necklace and put us in touch with someone who was an authority on Georgian jewelry. She, too, said the necklace definitely wasn't Georgian, but early Victorian.

I had never even considered that the necklace was Victorian, but having learned that information, i began my search again - this time focussing on Victorian jewelry. In my search, I came across Lang Antiques. Lo and behold, I finally found some necklaces that were similar in style to my necklace. However, the Victorian necklaces I found on Lang Antiques' website were comprised of diamonds that were obviously finer cut than the diamonds in my necklace.

It's been a long 17 months, and I might have some of my timelines fuzzy. Now that I think about it, I might have seen the Lang necklaces early on, but discounted them because they weren't Georgian and I was told my necklace was Georgian.

My boyfriend has decided to sell his jewelry collection, with the exception of a jadeite/gold men's ring and the gold/enamel buckle ring, which I really like and will wear. As I have since found out, it's impossible to set a price on a piece of jewelry when you don't know what you have. I spent untold hours cataloging all of the jewelry, describing it as best I could. Everytime I tried to research a piece (such as the yellow diamond, sapphire, white diamond, gold ring), I found myself spending many frustrating hours trying to figure out its value. I failed miserably. There were approximately 60 pieces, and that's not even including the silver jewelry. I finally realized I was over my head.

Next stop - gemologist. Thus far, I've spent 15 hours at the gemologist's office, and still have to go back one more time to finish up the project. Each piece will be photographed, weighed, and identified as to stones. Many of the pieces will be sold for the gold value. For example, there is a bracelet that is 14K and weighs 57 grams. What I've found out is that if the style of the piece is not something that is in fashion, it's not worth anything more than its value as gold which, as of the last time I checked, gold was at $1400/gram.

There will probably be approximately 20 pieces that will not be scrapped. My boyfriend and I are going to Chicago in July. We will take those pieces with us and have them appraised. I expect that we will ship the yellow diamond to GIA. The pearls will have to be x-rayed as some of them, at least according to the gemologist, could be very valuable (not cultured).

So, if anyone still thinks that I've posted pictures of jewelry not in my possession after reading my post, I don't know what to tell you. After we return from Chicago in July, I'll post the appraisals. The same applies to the items we send to GIA.
 

pixgirl

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Mar 30, 2010
Messages
242
Great pictures of beautiful jewelry. Thanks for posting them and please keep us updated on what happens to them! :)
 

diamondseeker2006

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
58,342
I am sure people will appreciate your explanation! There have just been fabulous pieces posted here before and eventually the person was accused of posting pictures of jewelry they found online somewhere because they couldn't produce any more photos. I just hated to see that happen to you.

All the pieces are fabulous! I certainly hope you are keeping some of them!
 
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