'Antiques Roadshow' guest stunned by the value of her vintage jewelry: 'I wear it quite a lot'
A lot of guests on "Antiques Roadshow" already treasure items that they bring, based on the memories associated with them. The expert who adds a price tag to the heirloom only validates its value. Many of these are gifts that were left behind by parents, grandparents or spouses. One guest had brought a collection of jade jewelry that impressed the expert, and it was a gift from her grandfather to her grandmother.
According to the expert, jade jewelry is tricky to appraise, and a lot of things need to be taken into consideration while evaluating it. The size of the jade stone, the smoothness of the stone, and the uniformity of that brilliant green color play a part. Among the items that the guest had brought, two contained flawless jade stones.
One of them was a ring with a giant jade stone in the center, and a diamond setting. The expert believed that the item was presumably crafted during the 1920s, as the style of the ring was characteristic of that period. These days, jade stones are tampered with to make them look better than they are, but this was not the case back then. Therefore, the guest did not have much to worry about in that regard.
Another item with a perfectly shaped, uniformly colored jade stone was unusual and looked like a pin. “This one here, have you noticed it’s got a slightly wedge shape? It’s almost as if it’s been polished slightly off, and that does affect the interest a little,” he said. Among the other items the guest had brought, there was a jade brooch, but it wasn’t in the best condition.
The brooch seemed deco as far as the expert was concerned, and it had tiny diamonds in it as well. What it also had was damage. “One small anxiety I’ve got, and I’m sure you have noticed it, that’s got a crack running way through it,” he said. This would affect the value of the brooch, but it was still worth a pretty penny. The final item that the expert looked at was a Chinese jade carving with a string attached to it.
It was probably meant to be worn as a necklace. The details on the piece included fish, a lotus flower, and a pea pod, among other things. The craftsmanship that went into it must have been incredible.
The damaged brooch was valued at £4,000 ($5,385). The pin with the jade stone on it was valued at the same amount of money. The expert said that the jade carving was an item that could be worth £6,000 to £8,000 ($8,077 to $10,769). He had seen something similar sell at an auction for that price. The big one was the ring, which the guest believed was worth £8,000 to £10,000. ($10,769 to $13,461). “I wear it quite a lot,” the guest said, surprised by the valuation of the ring. “I wish my grandfather could hear you say that because he obviously adored it.”
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