GUEST: Well, my grandmother, her name is Virginia, but I call her Jenna, affectionately. She worked Downtown Atlanta. She worked for Western Union there, and so she made that trek from where we... We're in a very rural area-- about an hour and a half south, every day. So before they built the interstates and stuff, she was traveling home from work, and thought she noticed what looked like a pocketbook on the side of the road, so she turned around and went back, grabbed the pocketbook. And when she got home, inside the pocketbook was three $100 bills, in mid-'50s, so... And this was wrapped up in some tissue. My grandfather was a policeman at the time, worked for the police department, so they called the police department, took it up there, and I guess they ran it in the paper, whatever they did in those times. And several months went by, and they released it back to her and it was hers to keep.
APPRAISER: No one ever came forward to claim it.
GUEST: Nothing. Nothing.
APPRAISER: Wow. What we have here is an American platinum, yellow gold, diamond, and ruby brooch. Manufactured in America, probably in the 1930s, just after the Art Deco period. How did you end up with this brooch?
GUEST: Well, for years I'd heard my mom and my grandmother talk about this bird pin, or whatever, and I was just, like, "I don't know about a bird pin," but when I got married, I needed something to wear on my band, on my wedding dress, and my grandmother said, "Oh, the bird pin will be perfect!" And I was, like, "I don't know about that." And so she showed me. I was, like, "Oh, it's perfect, two lovebirds..." Blah, blah, blah. So I wore it when I got married. After I got married, I went to give it back to her, and she said, "Oh, no, it's yours, you keep it," and so I've had it ever since!
APPRAISER: Lucky you. What a nice present.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Well, a few things make this brooch particularly special. They're all single-cut diamonds, very uniformly matched. Total carat weight I calculated is about five carats. You have a beautiful brushed 18-karat yellow gold nest, here. Very natural-looking, you can see the way that the craftsman overlapped the branches, and it really looks like a natural nest. Inside, we have three eggs, also set with single-cut diamonds, seated on a branch with one final single-cut diamond on the tip. So the detail is very exquisite. It's unsigned, but my guess is that it was one of the better craftsmen in the time making jewelry in America. The ruby eyes are a really nice detail, yellow gold beaks match, and it just is a really, really sweet thing. It's a wonderful family piece to have. If this was to be sold at auction, I would expect it to bring somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000.
GUEST: Okay. Super-cool!
APPRAISER: For retail, I'd say about double. Okay. Maybe $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST: Okay. Awesome! Well, my grandmother is going to be so excited. I begged her to come, but she wouldn't come with all us crazy people, she said, but she'll be excited for me to give her the details on it.
APPRAISER: Good.
GUEST: She's had it in a coat pocket for years before she gave it to me, so...
