'Antiques Roadshow' guest was stunned after expert revealed the value of her 100-year-old necklace
It’s not rare to see jewelry on “Antiques Roadshow,” but some items are so valuable that even the guest is left in awe. That’s what happened to one who brought a pair of bracelets to the show that dated back to the early 1900s. These bracelets could be fit together and be used as a choker necklace as well. It belonged to the guest’s great-great-great aunt and was later purchased by her father for $20,000 in the early 1970s.
The guest’s mother had advised her husband against buying it at the time, as it was too valuable to be worn outside. Well, that did not stop him. One can understand why someone would have to be extra careful wearing it in public. There were multiple diamonds attached to the necklace, and in total, it was 23 karats. Antique expert Katherine Van Dell said that the diamonds were mined in the Cape region of South Africa. The diamonds from that area had a characteristic yellow tint, and this one was no different.
“It firmly dates to the mid-1920s, I would say about 1925. So this is a beautiful art deco platinum and diamond convertible necklace that converts into two bracelets. Jewelry from this period is a signifier of wealth, but it’s still really versatile. It has multiple purposes,” Dell explained. She then clipped the two bracelets together to reveal the necklace it formed with a huge diamond at the front and a smaller one at the back.
In the early 1900s, the South African diamond mine in the Cape region was discovered, and that dramatically increased the production of diamond-based jewelry. It was not as rare as it once used to be, but the sale of such items was still controlled. The expert even said the item was probably manufactured in New York since, at the time, it was a massive hub of jewelry manufacturing.
“If you were an early 20th-century industrialist or socialite lady who loved to shop, you could go and get a wowza necklace like this. It was very, very in fashion,” Dell added. The guest had revealed earlier that her great-great-great aunt and uncle were in the import-export business of bananas, which allowed them to accumulate substantial wealth at the time. There was, however, one thing missing from the item.
“It’s not signed, which is the only thing that would add more to its value. It is in a fitted box, which I believe to be original, that is also unsigned. So no real clues about exactly who made it,” Dell added. Now, it was time for the appraisal of this beautiful necklace, and the guest simply wasn’t ready for it. “Conservatively, I would give it an auction estimate of $60,000 to $90,000,” she said.
The guest gasped upon hearing this and said, “Wow.” Dell also said that this item would fetch a price at the higher end of the range she just mentioned, but had there been a signature, its value could have been tripled.
