GUEST: My great-aunt brought this from Europe to my grandmother as a wedding gift. My grandmother gave it to me for my first birthday. And my great-aunt was told that it came from the Russian nobility. And that's all we know.
APPRAISER: When I took a look at the gold workmanship, we have what we call the foliage and sort of tendril motif, which is going throughout the whole bracelet. We also have this amazing, really fine, delicate enamel work--
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: --on the piece, and that goes throughout the whole bracelet as well,
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: front to back, which is a sign of a really great piece of jewelry. It's also studded with these tiny, tiny little diamonds. They're rose-cut diamonds,
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: which is very typical of jewelry that was made in the late 1800s.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: They also go around the whole bracelet, and they're studded throughout the whole bracelet. In the center is this really amazing cabochon sapphire. I would say estimated weight of about eight to ten carats.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The cabochon sapphire is very typical of the jewelry that was made in Europe around that time period. They would opt to... facet... not facet the stones, so that would mean that that would be cut in cabochon, and cabochon is just a polished surface, as opposed to the faceted surface. There's no marks on it that tell me it's a Russian piece. I would actually say that it's probably from Italy.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: They were doing a lot of great workmanship in Naples and Rome and in Florence.
GUEST: That's where she was. She was in... south of Rome.
APPRAISER: This type of sapphire also could possibly be a Burmese stone, which was popular at that time period. And I want to also show you one thing that tells me it's probably from the late 1800s. It's this clasp mechanism, which we have here. And it's called the tongue-and-groove, and that goes right into the piece, and it locks right in there. And you can actually hear the lock.
GUEST: Right, you can. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Snap. You also can see underneath it it's all pierced from behind. That's all done with a tiny tool, and it's open-work design. It's handmade and beautifully crafted. I think a really fine piece of gold workmanship like this, in 18-karat gold, I would say... Okay, um, studded with diamonds with a sapphire in the center, I would say auction estimate between $6,000 to $8,000.
GUEST: Oh, nice. Yeah.
