Art Deco Diamond, Sapphire & Pearl Necklace, ca. 1925
GUEST: It was my mother's. My father gave it to her for their 60th wedding anniversary in 2013. And she passed away in 2020, and I got it.
APPRAISER: Do you remember her wearing it?
GUEST: I do remember her wearing it, back when you could get dressed up and go out to society things and stuff, but she wore it a lot, and she loved it, and she was very proud of it.
APPRAISER: It dates from the Art Deco period, I would say 1925, 1930, if you think about how people are dressing and going out.
GUEST: A lot more than they are today.
APPRAISER: People that lived, like, in a house like this.
GUEST: Like this! (laughs)
APPRAISER: Yeah, no-- it's made out of platinum. It's suspended from these natural pearls on the necklace.
GUEST: Do you think that's originally how it was done when it was made?
APPRAISER: It's a good question.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: No, I don't.
GUEST: No, okay.
APPRAISER: Right now, on this necklace, at this length, it's a pendant suspended from a chain.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: The chain is 18 inches long.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Which is very contemporary.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: If it has the chain that I believe it had in length and it becomes a sautoir, the chain could have been as long as 30, 36 inches. So instead of landing up here on your chest, it would have been down...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: ...heck, by your belly button.
GUEST (laughing): So it'd swing when you're dancing in the '20s.
APPRAISER: Yeah, so I think it's all original, just, just...
GUEST: Someone cut the chain up.
APPRAISER: think it was shortened.
GUEST: (gasps)
APPRAISER: You'll see, there's a wonderful, big, old-European-cut diamond. This diamond is roughly a carat 80, almost two carats. Another two large diamonds down at the bottom.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: 1.25 carats each. Within the whole piece, there's another 60 or so diamonds. When you add all the diamonds up, we come up with about six carats total weight.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: You'll notice there's some blue accents here. Those are calibrated French-cut sapphires. That's another indicator of the Art Deco period and what they did back then. Let's go back to Dad. Where do you think he bought it?
GUEST: I think he bought it at Coleman Adler's in New Orleans. Because that's where he tended to buy jewelry.
APPRAISER: Still in business.
GUEST: Still in business.
APPRAISER: You had told me it wasn't signed.
GUEST: Well, I didn't know if it was signed.
APPRAISER: All right, so let's flip it over for everybody. Right here in this little plaque, it says "Adler."
GUEST: Okay, so it's Adler's.
APPRAISER: You see these panels here, and there's all this beautiful azure cutting inside. What's wonderful is, the azure cutting is pretty to look at, but they added a whole 'nother panel. And then they do all this piercing work, where they open it up like lattice, and then they go on and they engrave it. There's so much time spent in the back. You al...
GUEST: Well, I guess you could wear it backwards. (laughs)
APPRAISER: You almost could, let me tell you, it's that pretty. What's interesting is, he bought this in 2013.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Okay, it's signed Adler, but it's not made then. How does Adler end up with a piece of their jewelry from the 1920s?
GUEST: Well, maybe he bought it back at auction.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Or from a former owner.
APPRAISER: There you go. A lot of well-established jewelry companies-- and families have a long history with them-- do buy back jewelry.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: And they love to buy back what we call in the trade today heritage pieces.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Do you have any idea what they paid for this back then?
GUEST: I do.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: I had my sister, she found a receipt. It was $50,000.
APPRAISER: You could not walk back in to Adler's and buy this today for $50,000. It's not happening.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: I would think a retail price on this today would probably be somewhere around $75,000 to $85,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: That's good.
APPRAISER: It's good.
GUEST: Yay-- would it be better if I had the rest of the chain?
APPRAISER: If it was 36 inches long, it could have retailed all in for $100,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: It does make a difference.
GUEST: I wonder who that fool is that cut it off.
(both laughing)
GUEST: It was not my mother! (chuckles)
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
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