glitterata
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2002
- Messages
- 4,322
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?
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?