Please help me identify & price this lavaliere

[MarionC]

My good friend asked me to sell this for her but I told her I would buy it. I hate to see her part with it. She is from England and it was her husband's great-grandmother's necklace.


It is 1 1/2" from top of bale to bottom of dangling pearl.
It is marked 14k, and also with little numbers and symbols on four places on the back.
The diamond is 3.5mm, very clean, well-cut OEC with a beautiful flowery center .
There are 30 round pearls of various sizes and a larger irregularly shaped pearl dangling from the bottom.
It weighs 2.5 grams.
The chain is not original.

I have tried researching and have no idea of even a ball park number for the price. I want to pay her what it is worth, but of course I don't want to over pay.
Is there a way to figure out a value that is fair to both of us?

 

[MMtwo]

I would look for comps. Don't think the seed pearls drive up value, just the diamond weight and gold weight. I looked around on Ruby Lane for a few similar comps. By the way, I love the design on this one. Very beautiful lines.

http://www.rubylane.com/item/711873-0426/Art-Deco-Diamond-14-Karat-Yellow (more diamond)

http://www.rubylane.com/item/530644-C01783/Beautiful-Edwardian-14K-Yellow-Gold-Seed (smaller diamond)

http://www.rubylane.com/item/569833-32845/Edwardian-14kt-Gold-Diamond-Lavalier-Necklace

Sorry I am not more help, hope this is a start!

 

[MarionC]

moneymeister, thanks very much for your input.
I've seen everything from high 300's to 800's and your search shows that trend.

As much as I want to get a fair deal, I hate to think that this family treasure would only be worth around $400.

I'll keep researching!

 

[needfullshinythings]

Hi Jimmianne, the style of the piece is Art Nouveau. Just start your search with " Art Nouveau diamond & pearl lavalier " there are lots of images of very similar pieces to yours which may help getting a price comparison. Ofcourse the retailers of these items will add a pretty premium so you need to take that into account. Any chance of a close up of the marks on your piece Jimmi, I can only make out 14k from the pictures.

 

[MarionC]

Wow - I googled your suggestion and a world of eye-candy came up!


The marks are perhaps:

7/2478
411 or 11h
63 or E9
T [with 2 lines under it] 7Z...72 [maybe-his one is really hard to read]

 

[needfullshinythings]

Hi again Jimmianne, unfortunately I am not familiar with the marks. I have tried a quick search and all the evidence I found points to the piece being made in America. The 14k mark is the first indicator as to its origin, the marks are possibly registration numbers for the business and its location. Maybe there is a database for jewellery makers of this period, I know there is no hallmarking system in the US which makes it difficult to identify pieces without a makers name but I would think that there would be somewhere that you could find information regarding this period in the US. It didn't last long ( 20-25yrs ) As to the question of price, that is a tough one. The general " asking " price is quite high through the online vendors I have found & the " sold " prices I have seen for comparable pieces vary greatly !!! I would be very surprised if this one wasn't close to 4 figures though ( only my opinion ) which I know isn't in your favour but now you know what you are holding you should be able to narrow down the numbers pretty quickly while having fun trying to track down the maker. A little long winded but I hope it helps.

 

[MMtwo]

Hi Jimmianne, Just wondering what you figured out. This lavaliere is so beautiful it started a personal Art Nouveau rampage through ebay *sigh*