About antique jewelry evaluation

[cornelio]

Hello everybody, i m Giancarlo from Italy.

Sorry if my English sometimes could be strange to you.

I have an antique ring from my family. It has a big diamond and some little ones around. So because i was warring that the value could be high, and i need to store properly i went to an expert.
He did an evaluation of the bigger stone mounted, so he couldn't give me the exact evaluation (but only a range ),because he didn't disassemble the ring. So the bigger stone was around 1.6 carat , Old European Cut, K-L-M color and VVS2-VS1. The problem he told me was the cut and the color, because his evaluation was on resizing the stone on a modern cut. But this for me seem meaningless, because the value of course must be less, and also the historical value will be lost. I think the evaluation he gave me was ridiculous (2000 euros).

Could you give me an opinion about this?

Thank you

Giancarlo

 

[MariMeow]

I hope you didn't have it cut!

Some jewellers don't appreciate the old cuts because they don't meet modern standards, but that's also what makes them look so unique. And you're right, it would have lost weight.

Did you get other opinions?

 

[nishasharma]

I agree with you the old cuts don't the modern standard. I think you must check with other jewellery retailers.

 

[foxinsox]

Some appraisers who are not experienced with older cuts will appraise the diamond for what modern cut you could reasonably expect to get out of it if recut - recutting was a very common practice with older diamonds. So as you've surmised, it doesn't give you a true value of your current diamond at all!
If you can't find another appraiser who can evaluate it as it is instead of its theoretical value when recut, you could use the measurements and details the first appraiser supplied and work out a value yourself by comparing your diamond to other ones being sold by antique diamond specialists like Old World Diamonds, Jewels by Grace or Love Affair Diamonds. The colour and clarity range are quite broad though which will give you a similarly wide range of possible values.
Are there any PS-recommended appraisers nearby to you who you could contact?

 

[Katesimone]

I definitely would not be recutting the diamond - antique pieces are worth more than just their materials, the historical significance and original condition are huge factors in determining their value. If you can find a valuer who is used to working with antique pieces I'm sure you'd get a much more accurate price!