APPRAISER: This is a very interesting ring. It's a scarab ring, and it's surrounded by diamonds. But what I found most interesting about the piece was that it opens up, as I think you knew.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And when you open it up, there's this interior screen here. Do you have any idea what this is?
GUEST: All I know is, my mother told me it was a poison ring.
APPRAISER: (laughs) Ah, it's...
GUEST: It was very dramatic.
APPRAISER: History of Lucrezia Borgia.
GUEST: (laughing) Yes.
APPRAISER: Unfortunately, there's not, no Lucrezia Borgia here. What's interesting is that this is actually called a vinaigrette or a scent ring, and what ladies would do in the late 19th century, they would have a piece of material in here soaked in, say, a perfume. And if they were walking down the street and they walked by some garbage or something that smelled ill to them...
GUEST: Oh...
APPRAISER: ...they would hold this up to their nose, and it would be a fresh aroma by which to help revive them from the noxious odors of walking in the streets...
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: ...in the 19th century. So it doubled as a piece of jewelry and as a scent flask, so to speak, to hold it.
GUEST: Oh, my heavens.
APPRAISER: It's a great little piece here. The Egyptian motif is kind of interesting, because when they started unearthing a lot of the Egyptian tombs in the late 19th century, it became all the rage. Hence the beetle. So a piece like this, value on this would be somewhere between $800 to $1,200 at auction.
GUEST: It was in the costume jewelry box in my mother's drawer.
APPRAISER: (laughs) Well, it's not costume.
GUEST: Wow, well, that's very interesting. And I'm glad to hear it really wasn't a poison ring.
APPRAISER: Unless you do want to use it for that, that's your business.
