GUEST: I saw you advertised on TV announcing that you were gonna be in Birmingham, and it's been one of my dreams to come to the ROADSHOW, so I started searching what I could bring and what I couldn't bring, and I thought of the jewelry that my mother-in-law had in the safe. And you've probably seen it more than I've seen it in the whole time I've been in the family, and I've been in the family over 35 years.
APPRAISER: Oh, my God.
GUEST: So she kept it in the safe, and the story on the necklace is that one of her great-grandfathers from England was a ship captain, and the story goes that he picked this necklace up in the late 1800s, early 1800s in either China or Japan. The ring was there, but she never really told me the whole story about the ring except that it had just been in the family.
APPRAISER: So you opened the box, and what did you think?
GUEST: First of all, I opened the box and I thought, "Lord, she's going to come down and she's going to strike me for getting it out of the safe."
APPRAISER: Well, I don't think so, I think we're safe here.
GUEST: But anyway, it's mine, so I decided I would bring it.
APPRAISER: Those beads are rock crystal with beautiful silver little mounts.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: And this one doesn't have the markings. I have seen them usually where they'll say "China," so these were made in China. They came in different sizes, they came in different configurations of silver. This is a nice long one. Over time, they've been cut down, we see them in earrings, bracelets, but I like it that it's complete. And also, you haven't polished it, so if you clean it, it will really shine. And in the marketplace, these are very, very popular.
GUEST: How old do you think it is?
APPRAISER: I think it's from the 1920s. Now, the ring. I measured the stone, and it measures to be just under three carats.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: And it's a transitional cut, so it's a stone that's not an old mine, but it's not a brilliant cut. So that would be around the 1920s, which when you look at the mounting, it is a great example of an Art Deco mount. If I had to guess where the ring was made, the actual mounting, I would say it's American, probably in a big city like New York, Chicago. That would be my guess. The stone has a somewhat serious inclusion, so we call it an SI2, but it's got a nice white color. Of course, now we give you the price.
GUEST: Oh, goodness.
APPRAISER: So, the beads are about $1,500 to $2,000 as a retail price, and they used to bring a lot more, but they've come down.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: But still, it's fantastic. The diamond ring, a retail price on this just for the stone is probably about $28,000.
GUEST: You have got to be kidding.
APPRAISER: No. And I think the mounting, if you had to sell the mounting separately, that is probably a $3,000 mount. So basically, you've got something retail that's in the $32,000 range.
GUEST: Good grief!
APPRAISER: So you were left some very...
GUEST: Thank you to my mother-in-law!
APPRAISER: Mother-in-laws, they're good.
GUEST: And it's out of the safe and it's gonna stay!
