Antique brooch with 7 little colored OMC diamonds: what do you think?

[glitterata]

One of my favorite charity shops has this Victorian or Edwardian brooch. It's 14K gold (I think he said--could have been 18K), unmarked, set with a hardstone (agate) cameo and 7 little old mine cut diamonds in various colors. One is distinctly yellow, two looked pinky-champagne-brownish in the shop lights, one looked grayish with a tinge of bluish color, and the others might be brownish. The man behind the counter said they came from a man with a fabulous collection of Victorian jewelry who regularly donates pieces. I've seen many of them, and they're all fabulous and genuine. The store's prices for those items are fair but not cheap. This brooch looked and felt like what they claimed: a Victorian or Edwardian piece made of gold and diamonds with an agate cameo. The shape is unusual; the man behind the counter said their jewelry expert speculated that it might have been put together out of more than one piece, with the long filigree part on the righthand side added to a simpler cameo brooch.

I looked at the 7 little diamonds carefully through my loupe. They are chunky OMCs, with high crowns, open culets, and irregular facets. I'm far from an expert, but I would guess they're in the SI-I1 range--I saw some naturals and some crystals, but they're generally pretty clean. Of course, this was indoors in somewhat random thrift-store lighting after the sun went down, so the colors are anybody's guess. Still, it's fun to speculate.

Here are some photos of the brooch, with a penny for scale. Two photos (tilted very slightly differently) show the brooch on my hand near my 1.45 ct S color CBI diamond and my 1.75 ct green/yellow chrysoberyl, for size and color comparison.

Any guesses about how big these diamonds might be, very approximately?
Would you buy this, assuming the stones are diamonds and the metal is gold? If so, for what price?

 

[Bron357]

How long is a piece of string?
Hmmm, I think the larger diamonds are around 25 / 30 points each, the smaller ones 10 / 15 points so I’d guess say 1.2 carats.
the piece has a gold melt value and I can’t really guess that and is it all 14kt gold or the pin and barrel (at rear) not gold?
its “wearability” affects its value, brooches arent really “in”, and with the cameo it wouldnt really work turning to a pendant. It would be a bit sad to harvest it for the diamonds.
what would I be tempted at? I’d consider it at $500 but a price under $750 would be fair, over that I’d be wanting hallmarks.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

It's good to see you here, @glitterata ! I think it's an interesting piece for sure, but I don't love it. If the cameo was more beautiful, maybe. But as Bron said, it's not a very wearable piece. Do you love it? If not, don't buy. I wouldn't buy it at $500, because I know I wouldn't wear it. And I wouldn't buy just to take the diamonds out, either.

 

[PreRaphaelite]

What is he asking for it? Sorry to be blunt. I like it.

It may be a Comet brooch, inspired by Edmond Halley, which would suggest a make date circa 1835.

If I had fun money, I’d buy it!

 

[glitterata]

Thanks, @Bron357 and @diamondseeker2006 . "How long is a piece of string"--lol! Yeah, I know I'm asking for the impossible! Sheer guesses welcome; thanks for yours.

I do wear brooches, so that's not an issue for me. (Working my way up to little-old-lady status, brooch by brooch.) But I don't really like that particular cameo either.

@PreRaphaelite They want in the $1500 range, which seemed high to me. (I wanted to hear others' thoughts about what they would pay without the "anchoring effect" of naming a sum.)

I considered Halley's Comet, but the clasp is all wrong for the 1830s, as are the diamond settings, which I think would have been closed-back collet settings, wouldn't they? And why would there be a cameo in a Halley's Comet brooch? Halley's Comet did come back in 1919, which is a more plausible date for the clasp, but there were fewer Halley's Comet brooches made then. All of mine from c. 1835 are tiny lace pins (I have half a dozen of them); this is much bigger. On the other hand, it's interesting that your link shows exactly 7 stars, like the 7 little colored diamonds.

Hm!

 

[OoohShiny]

+1 to not melting it down - too pretty to do so!

 

[Catmom]

Well, I do like it, says the little old brooch wearing lady, but I would not pay $1500 for it.

 

[PreRaphaelite]

$1500 is unrealistic. It's pretty though. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Lykame]

The thing that makes me most curious about it is that you mentioned one of the diamonds has a pinkish hue...



As you say it's from a charity shop I'm not sure I would feel comfortable going down any haggling route (personally I'm terrible at that anyway) so you would really have to love it and wear it a lot I think to spend that money on it. It sounds like the others with way more experience than me don't think it's worth that and I would trust their advice. I guess you could unset the diamonds and send them for grading but that all becomes even more expensive and pointless. Enjoy it as is or don't get it?

 

[missy]

Well, this is a unique piece and since you would wear it I think I love it for you. But $1500 is not a sweet deal. Do you think you could offer less and the seller would accept your offer? I mean the charity shop will still make money on this piece if they accept less. Of that I am sure. So yeah if you love it I would offer whatever you are comfortable offering and see if they accept. If it is meant to be it will be. And it is such a unique piece. Those OMC diamonds are OMC chunkalicious.

 

[kenny]

Pretty piece.

Without reports from GIA there's no way to know whether those FCDs are fully natural.

Two separate things about FCDs might be natural, or not.
1. The source of the material itself could be the earth, or it could have been manufactured in a lab.
2. The source of the color itself could be the earth, or the result of treatment in a lab.

If fully natural (both of the above) the value is much much higher than if either is not natural, and you can't tell by looking.

GIA is the gold standard at making the two calls on the natural questions.
Without GIA reports I wouldn't touch it unless I was happy with FCDs that are not fully natural, and it was priced very low, and not represented as if the FCDs were natural.
Only GIA reports can justify the high price of fully natural FCDs.

Of course there's nothing wrong with FCDs not being fully natural, but there's lots wrong with a seller claiming this without proof, GIA reports.

Often sellers claim "natural" or "real" when the material was mined from the earth but the color is from lab treatment.
Are you a gambler?
IOW, buyer beware.

 

[glitterata]

Thanks, everybody! I’m not actually going to buy it, because it’s too expensive and I don’t love the cameo. I just thought it was interesting.

Kenny, they’re not claiming the diamonds are naturally colored, just that they’re diamonds, which I do believe.

Their prices for their other Victorian jewelry are on the highish but not unreasonable side, and the pieces themselves are all excellent. But too high to tempt me.