GUEST: I actually inherited it for my birthday last year from my Aunt Libby, and she got it from her Aunt Libby. And she's from Leesburg, and she's had it in her family for a long time. And ever since I saw this piece of jewelry, I just thought it was the most beautiful thing. And since my Aunt Libby doesn't have kids, for my birthday, she gave it to me, so I was really excited. When it was my Great-Aunt Libby's piece of jewelry, my mother used to hate... Like, comment on how much she hated it, because she thinks it's ugly. The brown lines in it, she thinks it makes it look horrible, and I'm like, "But it's character! I think it's character." It's interesting.
APPRAISER: It is opal, the center stone. Opal comes in many forms, it comes from many places. Sometimes it's more milky. Then you have black opal, which is like this very dark with this fire in it. And then out west, especially out here, you see what they call boulder opal, and this is very reminiscent of boulder opal. That tends to have more of these matrix lines in it.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Which is what you're seeing there. A long time ago, you had an appraisal on this, correct?
GUEST: Yeah, it was done in 1978 by my Great-Aunt Libby, and it was for $2,500.
APPRAISER: It is signed.
GUEST: Oh, it is? I did not know that.
APPRAISER: And right over here... It says, "Marcus & Co." Now, Herman Marcus came to this country from Germany in 1850. He was a very talented jeweler. When he started here, he worked for multiple firms, but most notably, he worked for Tiffany & Company. He left Tiffany and then worked for another big company called Theodore Starr, and it became Starr and Marcus. That dissolved, guess where he went? He went back to Tiffany. (laughs) After that, he started working with his sons.
GUEST: Oh, really?
APPRAISER: And the firm then became Marcus & Co.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: He made this beautiful Art Nouveau-style jewelry. That's the design you see. Now, he was very meticulous about his metal work. It's accented by old mine diamonds.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: And then you see he had this use of this bright enamel in the background, that's green enamel. The enamellers that worked for him, a lot of them trained at Lalique, who was also known for making great enamel.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: The ring up here, you wear it like this.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: With that ring on top. Technically, it was designed to be worn like that.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Something hanged down, something like a fresh water pearl. You have a piece that, if you had to rewrite that insurance appraisal today, you would have to re-write it for $12,000.
GUEST: Oh my goodness... Wow.
APPRAISER: It's an important piece, and Marcus jewelry, while it's always been good, more people are recognizing his genius.
GUEST: Wow. And I will save it for whoever's named Elizabeth in my next generation. (laughing)
