GUEST: This ring came from my Great-Aunt Henrietta, and she traveled some, and she was an artsy kind of person. She lived in Paris, France, for a while, and you know, you want to make kind of a story about the ring that maybe it came from Paris, but I don't know that for sure.
APPRAISER: What we have here is a French Art Nouveau ring done probably around 1910 because it's made with platinum. I know it's French because of the form. It does seem to have a replaced shank to it. The hoop would have been marked with the French platinum marks. It's got a natural pearl in the middle and diamonds. You were given an appraisal on the ring.
GUEST: I had the ring appraised at a jeweler's one time, and then he thought that it might be worth about $1,500 or so. The jeweler said that the pearl probably should be replaced because it's a little dull, that you can get a more lustrous looking pearl, but I didn't do that. I wanted to get another opinion.
APPRAISER: Okay. My opinion is don't change it. This is a natural button pearl, approximately five millimeters. It could be replaced with a Japanese cultured pearl of about the same size. It would be worth about $6.50.
GUEST: Oh, my.
APPRAISER: This pearl is worth about $350.
GUEST: Oh, my.
APPRAISER: Right, yeah.
GUEST: Whoa.
APPRAISER: In general, if you're going to get anything replaced on a piece of jewelry, go about it really cautiously. And you've got to get those replaced pieces back. We don't see too many Art Nouveau rings because they're fragile. It's a delicate piece of work. We would give it an auction estimate today of $2,500 to $3,500.
GUEST: Oh, my, wow.
