Owner 'Wowed' By 125-Year-Old Opal & Diamond Earrings Worth Thousands | Antiques Roadshow UK

Well, what a beautiful pair of earrings that we have here. How have they come into your life? My mum actually gave them to me as a wedding present, but they actually came to my mum through her granny, so my great-granny. Oh, how wonderful. They are absolutely stunning, and they date from round about 1900. They're part of what we call the Belle Epoque style of jewellery, or the garland style of jewellery, which was based on the Rococo period, 18th century, and was all about bows and pendant drops, as we have here, and delicacy and femininity. And they're just absolutely beautiful. So you got them as a wedding present? Yes, I did. Did you wear them? I wore them on the day I did. Oh, how lovely. And have you worn them since? I think I've worn them maybe once or twice on special occasions. They're very fancy, so... And of course, the fact that they are articulated as well just makes them that little bit more superb, doesn't it? Of course, it really gives that dressy feel to them. But of course, I'm sure you're dying to know what they're actually set with. Have you got any ideas? Well, I mean, they've always been known in the family as the opal earrings, so I'm hoping that they are opals. Well, you're absolutely right. They are opals. A whole variety of different sort of shades of green and blue that we have there as well, which is really lovely. A lot of people think that all the stones in a piece of jewellery should be exactly the same colour and match superbly. But I think when you've got pendant earrings like this that have the movement and will just shimmer in the light, to have a variety of colours isn't always a bad thing. And I just think that they look absolutely superb. And then, of course, they're surrounded by very delicate diamonds, which again fits in perfectly with that Edwardian period when diamonds suddenly became the stone of the time. Then they're set in platinum. And platinum, again, is something which adds a lightness to the jewellery but is very strong, and you can create a really very pretty and delicate look to the pieces of jewellery. I didn't realise, actually, that they were diamonds as well. So that's news. Oh, well, that's good. That's excellent. So you might just wear them a little bit more, do you think? Maybe. Yeah, definitely. There is one of the opals which has got a little bit of a chip out of it, which is a shame. But it still, for me, doesn't really take away from the beauty of them. So value-wise, I would expect them at an auction to get between £3,000 and £4,000. Wow, that's brilliant. Thank you very much.