GUEST: It was in some items that came from my great-aunt, who was kind of a unique individual. And she loved to go to sales and collect stuff, and we loved her. She died when I was a teenager, and she left an apartment near the cathedral on St. Paul just full of stuff. And I took some of her things, because a lot of people said "It's just junk." And one of the things I took was an old sewing machine. It sat in my house for a long time, and in the drawer was, like, a muslin bag. It had pieces for the sewing machine in it. And we had a house fire, and the sewing machine had to be cleaned. And I took the bag out, and when I emptied the bag, the ring was in there.
APPRAISER: Okay. From the look of it, it doesn't seem to have been worn ever. It's a very pristine ring.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: The mill graining around all these three diamonds is very fresh. And it's about 100 years old, so it's from about 1910 to 1915. It is in platinum. The center stone is the largest stone we have here in the middle, and it's about approximately 2.50 carats. The side stones are about one carat each. That said, the inclusions in the stones in the center and on the side are pretty prominent. So it's probably like an SI2 to SI1 clarity, meaning slightly included to the first or the second power. The stone onto the right side of the center diamond is a little bit cleaner. The color of the diamonds are very good. It's probably GH on the GIA grading scale.
GUEST: So that means they're whiter, or...
APPRAISER: They're whiter, yes. It goes all the way down to Z, and it starts at D. Diamonds are on the rise, especially over the past year and a half. Because this is a vintage ring, it's quite desirable. I would say an auction estimate would be conservatively set at $30,000 to $50,000.
GUEST: Wow! Who knew? Laying in the bottom of a bag.
