Most Beautiful BRACELET on Antiques Roadshow!

This lady brought in a very amazing bracelet made with a verse from the Book of Revelations by her great-grandfather, the Archbishop of York. The foundations are each decorated with a different stone such as jasper and sapphire and it goes on. The gates of the city are a single pearl and the streets are paved in gold and he used that as the theme to have this bracelet. So it's clearly something that he thought about quite a bit and it was a special order. Yeah. This piece was made in the 1800s and completely bejeweled based on the Biblical inspiration which she was quick to point out. First, let's mention that it's 18 karat yellow and gold. We have a lot of stones. We have jasper, sapphire, emerald, sardonyx. We have topaz, beryl, chrysophase, amethyst, I mean it's got everything and all the colors. They're all listed in the Bible. Right. We also have tucked in here these little natural pearls which are not cultured, they're natural. So that's extremely nice little touch. In this line of work, initials or insignias are very important for identifying the item. Fortunately, it's intact here. You said there's some initials on the back. What were they? I think it's C and A-G. Okay, so let's show everybody. And the initials are right here on the tongue. Now, you tried to look them up online. Yes. What'd you come up with? The Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Yeah. That's not it, I think. I don't think you got it. No. Being in the jewelry business, this is kind of like a little bit of the Holy Grail. Ah. All right? Turns out, it was made by a very huge jeweler called Carlo Giuliano who apprenticed for Castellani. Very big names in Italy during the 1900s. They were very much what we call revivalist jewelers. They worked in the Renaissance revival, they worked in archaeological revival. I think it's really neat that they pick up on all these elements. Now, this is very sought after in the jewelry world. Well, that's more than I expected. Is it? Yeah? Oh, yes. It's lovely, and I've worn it, but it's the family connection that means a lot. Descended from nobility, this woman decided to bring in a bracelet she had inherited from her mother. My mother was a German countess, and her ancestors started in Russia, and then during the Russian Revolution, they fled to France. Okay. And at that time, they were supposed to have acquired this piece. In France? In France. It was supposed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette. That's the story I got from my mother. My mother was born in France, and then they moved to Germany, and she was raised in a castle in Munich. If they really belonged to Marie Antoinette, she could be sitting on a gold mine here. If it isn't, well, the rubies aren't too bad either. In the trade, we call the best rubies pigeon blood red rubies, and that's what you have here. Wow. They're bright, and they're not treated. They're natural, and you know the bracelet was made in France. I was assuming that it was, since my mother told me that it was Marie Antoinette's, but... Okay, well, Marie Antoinette never saw this bracelet. Okay. The hallmarks, the double eagles in the head, tell you it was made in France, and it's 18-carat gold. Unfortunately, it's not Marie Antoinette. The lady seemed more interested in affirming that connection than knowing how much it's worth. The gold is on the reverse side. If you turn it over like that, you see the yellow gold. The top, all the diamonds, they're very tiny, full-cut diamonds. They're set in platinum. So this is late 1800s when it was made. Okay. Not Marie Antoinette. She could never wear it. No. Now it's time to know how much this beautiful piece is worth. My mother used to wear it all the time. In fact, she left it in a car that my father sold, and she realized that she had left it and went back the next day, and it was still in the glove box. Oh, my God. I guess I'm fortunate to still have it. A piece like this in today's market could easily sell for somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000. This piece? This piece at auction. I'll hold on to it for a long time then. This woman brought in her diamond bracelet, which she had inherited from her father who got it from her great-aunt. There's a period called Art Deco, and this is one of those classic examples. You see the shape. It's slightly tapered. There's a lot of geometric design going on here in these kind of trapezoidal sections. And then you see over here you kind of got a little pear-shaped section. And then again, it's very strong through here. It's slightly curved, and that's a sign of a nice piece of jewelry. Even though this is all flexible to go around the wrist, this here is curved for the top of the wrist. Oh, wow. Old mine means it's hand-cut, using old techniques before things got way more advanced. There's 180 diamonds in there. Is that good? Is that a lot of diamonds? Well, I would think the more the merrier. Right away you see there's two larger ones here. So they're about 3 quarters of a carat each. And they are old mine and European-cut diamonds. And then if you come on down, there's a couple bigger ones. They're about a half a carat each. And that's another thing you see on nice pieces of jewelry. We see a lot of bracelets. All the diamonds are very tiny. And they make it look really big. But here on a piece like this, they are in fact using large diamonds with the small diamonds. He decided to check if the bracelet was really made by Cartier. If we look over here, we can see it is in fact signed Cartier. For real? For real. Why? Because you have to look at the signature and see if it's correct. There are different periods in time. You'll see here that it's block. And that's the correct way that they would have signed it in this period 1925 to 1935. That's really not enough. You need more. Oh no. So if you look just above it, you'll see some very tiny numbers. Yeah. Oh. These are numbers that Cartier would have used in-house to identify the bracelet. If your family had purchased this bracelet and you went back to Cartier, they could authenticate it with those numbers. After confirming the serial number, the appraiser couldn't help but notice another minor detail he had almost missed. The stones are all round. Yes. You notice the shape of what we call the azure cuts in the back? Yes. They're all square. Oh. And they sat there and cut every one of them out with a saw and hand-finished them and polished them before they set the stone from the front. The back of the jewelry can be as pretty as the front. So that's what they wanted to do. They took the extra time to make it extra special, to make it beautiful from the back. Yes, it lets more light in. Okay. So the diamonds sparkle more, and it also makes it easier to clean it. They had been initially told that the bracelet is just $9,000, but this appraiser thinks otherwise. If I had to appraise this right now today for auction, I would say that this bracelet, easily, because of the Cartier name and the strong Art Deco influences, $40,000 to $60,000. No way. $40,000 to $60,000. That's crazy. For insurance purposes, again, today, this would insure for $100,000. Now I'm, no. It would insure for $100,000. Right. Okay. Seriously? Cat got your tongue? Well, no way. Thank you, Aunt Blanche. Thank you. I love it. It's awesome. I received it from my mom when I was about 35, and I took it to a jeweler and tried to get it appraised, and I had noticed that it said Marcus and Company on the back. Right. And I thought back then it was part of Neiman Marcus. Right. And at the time they said, well, we're not really quite sure. So I've seen other items that were Marcus and Company on Antiques Roadshow, and it's just like this person has Marcus and this person has Marcus. I have a Marcus. Yes, you do. This lady had a lot of doubts about her bracelet. Fortunately, she had come to the right place. It was a father and son that started it, and they had a place in Manhattan, one of the prominent jewelers of the time. It is carved emeralds in the Tutti Frutti style, which was very hot in the 20s and 30s. It's Art Deco era, and it's done in platinum, and it's got brilliant cut diamonds, and it's very desirable. They still make Tutti Frutti style carvings to this day. Oh, really? But the original artifact, which you have here from the Art Deco era, is awesome. It's beautiful. And it's in really good shape because emeralds are pretty soft. They're not like diamonds or sapphires or rubies that are much harder and survive better. So to have this carving that is still in such great shape is amazing. They had tried to get it appraised, but if the result was satisfactory, she wouldn't have appeared here. When you had it appraised, they didn't tell you the value or anything? My mom has the appraisal somewhere in their house that they've lived in since 1976. So I don't have the appraisal, and I keep it in my safe, and I bring it out for like birthdays and Christmas. I don't have it insured either. Now, that's kind of naughty. I was guessing somewhere between maybe 5 to 10. Did somebody ever offer to buy this from you? Long time ago, probably in the late 80s, my mom considered selling it, and there's some other pieces that are not Marcus, but some other pieces go along with it. And they offered her about $3,000 for the entire set. Now, if what the appraiser has said is right, let's know how much they could have lost if they had sold it. I believe now that if you have this in a nice high-end retail jewelry store, it'd be around $25,000, yeah. Thank you so much. That's fantastic news. I love it. I love to see that big smile. I just love it. Imagine winning a very huge treasure in a simple game of cards. Well, that's exactly what happened to this man's father. He was stationed in France and went up that way. He came in the Normandy invasion and was also involved in the Battle of the Bulge, so in that area. So you don't really know very much at all about it other than it's a snake bracelet. I don't, sir, no. It's an interesting design because the first snake jewelry was the Egyptian Asp. Wow. And it's not the time of the poker game. It's probably 1870, 1880. It's English. The appraiser couldn't help but admire the piece. It's 18-carat gold inlaid with jewels. What's not to love about that? I would imagine it's cashmere, sapphire, which is the top, top, top grade of sapphire. Do you have any idea? No, I really don't. When I searched on the Internet, I couldn't find anything, and everybody I talked to says they've never seen anything like it. Well, how much would you like it to be? Well, I'll put it this way. It doesn't really matter to me if it's a dollar. It's a family heirloom. It's a keepsake from my mom who passed away in October, so it has very high sentimental value. Top grade sapphire? Gold? High value? From what he's inferred, that doesn't matter. But who knows? Maybe he'll change his mind once he hears the price. So, frankly, you can tell me it's worth a million dollars and it wouldn't make a darn bit of difference to me. Not quite. But how about about $25,000 or $27,000 retail? Well, that's wonderful. That's nice to know, to be able to get an appraisal and have it appraised. A lot of the value is the fact that it's got such a wonderful stone in the center of it. If it were a lesser stone, it might be around $18,000 or $20,000, but I'm firmly convinced that $25,000 is a very fair retail price for it. Well, you know, I think that's amazing, and I'm thrilled, and it's an honor to be on Antiques Roadshow, and it's wonderful, and I'm very, very pleased. This woman brought in a very nice-looking wide Art Deco bracelet with diamond, ruby, sapphire, and emerald charms. My father presented my mother with a diamond bracelet that was yea wide, and she thanked him very much, but told him she would never wear it. And so he took it back, and he had another one made for her that was narrower, and she said, I will keep it in the safe deposit box. I'm not going to wear it. She was really particular. Well, she didn't want to flaunt things. He then had this bracelet made for her, and he said to her when he gave it to her, this one you cannot return. I have had it made just for you. It's essential to assess the makeup of the item before giving an estimate, and that's what the appraiser does. There's not a mark on it. It's engraved on the inside with your mother's name from Morris, 1939. So this puts it in the late Deco period. The bracelet is gold, and with the fluting down the side is a typical Deco-style bracelet, and this one is decorated with platinum, diamond, and multicolored charms. Each charm represents different characters, all made from different stones. It's simply magnificent. This is a basket, and then we have a man walking with a dog with a star ruby, which is a very rare stone. Then we have a clown with another star ruby, and then we have a lady with a baby carriage with movable wheels, a Viking ship with multicolored stones, and a lighthouse with a gorgeous carved ruby and a diamond tower. Every single stone wasn't just pieced together haphazardly. They were made using the best of the best stones around. When he gave it to her, he told her that every year for their anniversary, he would take one charm off and replace it with another one, and unfortunately, he died in 1940. So the bracelet is exactly the way he gave it to her. The price on this bracelet in today's market is very strong because it's very collectible. A piece like this would sell retail somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000. Wow. This is the widest one I've ever seen. Most of them are roughly about a half inch to three-quarters of an inch. This is an inch and three-quarters wide. Thank you very much. You're welcome.