Jewellery Discoveries That Left Experts & Owners Speechless | Series 38 | Antiques Roadshow UK

Really? Well, that is lovely. Because what do you think the market likes? Sparkles. So do we think that's good or bad, that beeping? Well, what wonderful flowers we see behind us here. And in the Renaissance, the word for a flower was the word for two objects. One was a flower, of course, itself, but also for a jewel. And in a way, this is exactly what you brought. You brought me a fair flower of a necklace from what date, do you think? Well, I thought maybe the kind of 18th century. I'm not sure, that's why. Exactly. And it is 18th century and it's set with various coloured stones. Some of them are glass and some are not. Tell me about it with you. Well, my mother gave them to me, these two pieces. So I just wanted to know a little bit more about them. And do you wear them? I have worn the necklace once, but I was a bit worried it was too fragile. Well, I think it is an extremely delicate object and a very strange survival. Perhaps it's come through because the intrinsic value of it isn't enormous, that there's mainly glass and with a few coloured stones shot in. And so I think that has preserved it in some degree. There's been no temptation to break it up. And it takes us into a luminous world of entertainment in the 1760s of dress and dances and masks. And this would have been worn by a woman of some substance, somebody very young, I think. And I have to say it would look wonderful in candlelight, which is really where it was intended to be worn. And it's a great joy to see it, I must say. And tell me about the ring. Why did you bring the ring? Well, a bit for the reason it's the necklace. I wanted to know if they were kind of paste or real stones because I couldn't tell. Well, indeed, it's not your job to know that. But it's certainly our job to know it. And in a way, the sun is revealing exactly what we want to see, which is an inimitable return of light. Because these are diamonds. This is a rose-cut diamond. It's a diamond that's faceted all over. And it's completely flat at the back. It's a very ancient cut of diamond that existed in the 16th century and probably before. And in this particular instance, it's in an 18th century ring. So you have an 18th... So the same period. Exactly the same period. Mounted in gold and set in silver. And they're very enviable, aren't they? They're lovely things. And I think I'm going to put a value of £1,200 on the necklace. Okay, very nice. And £2,000 on the ring. Excellent. Well, thank you very much. That's great. They've fallen very happily. I think they look lovely. And I'm sure you're going to wear them. Lovely. Thank you very much. That's very kind. Thank you. Lovely, bright, sunny day. Glaring sunshine down on this golden yellow gem in a gold mount. My father bought that in 1945 during the war. He was in the RAF and he was serving in Ceylon and in Burma. When my mother and him got married in 1947, he gave it to my mother. Did she wear it? Oh, my mother wore it a lot. Every time she went out, she was a party girl in the RAF, used to go out a lot. And my mother wore that a lot. And I can remember her saying to me, Stephanie, put this on my finger when I go out. And she also used to say to me, when you're grown up and a big girl, this is going to be yours because it's Topaz. And Topaz is my birthstone from November. Oh, right. Well, let me tell you a little bit about it. Now, the interesting thing you said is that your father acquired it in 1945 in Ceylon or Burma. Ceylon, which, of course, is Sri Lanka today. And that would be right because the stone like this would have been sourced probably from a local mine, I think possibly Ceylon. Let's just talk about the mount. The mount is gold and it has a slightly eastern sort of look to the setting, to the gallery of the stone as well. The stone weighs something like 30 carats. And it's not a Topaz. Right. And it's not a citrine, which is the stone that it's often confused with. It is a golden yellow sapphire. How do I know it is a sapphire? Because I can use my lens and I can look into the stone and I see that it has telltale marks that we find in sapphires. And they're typical stones that you find in Ceylon. So that's what it is. So what do you think it might be worth? 30 carat Ceylon yellow sapphire. Not the best depth of colour, but an incredibly rare size and a specimen stone. I think that your father, and indeed your mother, would be pleased to find out that you've got a stone worth £3,000 there. Really? Well, that is lovely. But far, far rarer than you might have thought it was. Now, don't take this the wrong way. We do not get very many young men coming in with formal brooches like this. So there's a puzzle for me. What made you bring this in? It's really intriguing. It's a really nice brooch. Hope it's real. And I thought I'd find a bit more about it. You know, is it Art Deco, Art Nouveau, that period sort of thing? What's it made of? Is it real? Is it fake? Fingers crossed it's real. Oh, well, I'll come on to that in a minute. I assume it's not yours. It might be yours. Why do I assume it's not yours? It may be yours. Is it yours? Well, hopefully in the future. It's currently owned by my parents. And, you know, I'll put a note underneath saying property of Matthew. Oh, I see. In anticipation of what I'm going to say. OK, OK. So you've given me a few suggestions of what you think it might be. Art Nouveau, Art Deco. So if it was the Nouveau period, it would be made in around about 1900, 1910. If it's Art Deco, it would be made in around about the 20s or 30s. You don't know what the gems are? Nothing. So it's not Art Nouveau, it's Art Deco. Yes, you're right. How do I know it's Art Deco? Because it's this geometric linear form where in the Nouveau period, it would be all flowing lines and soft flowers and that sort of thing. Now, it's a white metal frame and it's mounted in the centre with a green stone. What's the green stone? It's an emerald. It's an emerald, but it's quite a nice emerald. Columbian. That's where the best ones come from. Good. What an emerald. I mean, it's a really lovely, strong, vibrant green colour. Great. It's in a diamond frame, absolutely packed to the gills with lovely, brilliant and baguette cut diamonds. Now, that puts a whole different perspective on it from my point of view. Right. Because what do you think the market likes? Sparkles. Emerald and diamond brooches like that. I agree. So this is all very good news for you, isn't it? It is, even better. 1935, Art Deco, slap bang in the middle of the 1930s, geometric, lovely emerald. We love emeralds. They've really gone up in price recently. Lovely diamonds, super fit, looks great. If I said it was worth a couple of thousand pounds, oh my goodness me. Thank you very much indeed. I'd be well impressed with that. OK, six to eight thousand pounds. Oh, wow. So yeah, definitely mine in the future. It's a smashing brooch. Well, I think you're our farthest travelled person here today. Where have you come from? Perth, Australia. Fantastic. So why have you come today? I've actually come over for a family wedding, but I wanted to come to the Antiques Roadshow, so I bought some earrings that I bought three years ago. Oh, brilliant. Actually, you bought them actually over in Perth? Yes, yes. I bought them for a fancy dress. OK, and what was the fancy dress party about? We had to, the theme was op shop glamour. So we had to go and find something in the op shop that was glamorous that we could wear for the dinner. And that is where my op shop glamour. OK, so op shop, is that a charity shop? Yes, opportunity shop, yeah, charity shop. Opportunity shop, brilliant, wonderful. Well, I'm really pleased that you've brought them along because obviously jewellery is my thing. Love them, they look so glamorous, and I bet you look fantastic when you were at the party. Well, I haven't worn them since. Have you? Because they clip on. Well, that's no good, is it? Never mind, maybe you'll have to get them converted and then you can wear them. I've had a really good look at them. And obviously, I've come to my own conclusions about what they are through knowledge and experience of looking at these pieces. So I have got one of these, which is a thermal tester. And through heat, it will differentiate between paste and diamonds. And it's going to make a series of noises and that will help us determine one way or the other what they actually are. So if we take one of these lovely earrings and basically just take this and put it on here. So do we think that's good or bad, that beeping? They're just a bit of bling, really. $10 bit of bling. $10? So that equates to £5 over here. Well, as I say, we've had a really good look at them and obviously the machine is making some strange noises. Yeah. Well, the noise that the tester made says that they are diamonds. And inside the centre bit here, you've also got some lovely floating diamonds or happy diamonds, as they tend to be called in this range of jewellery. But if we look really closely at them, we can see that on the glass, they've got engraved on them a name. And the name on the glass is Chopard. French jewellers, and they date from the 1980s and 1990s period. And they design some really superb pieces of jewellery and are, well, seen in some of the finest auctions across the world in Geneva and New York and highly sought after in many ways. So that's all good news, really, isn't it, so far? Yeah. But then, of course, it does come down to value and you've come all this way to see how much they're worth. Yes. Well, you could have probably travelled quite luxuriously on your way over here because value-wise, at auction, we're going to be looking in the region of £4,000 to £6,000. Ooh! Will you be coming back? Yes! Do you think about shopping first? Absolutely. We know where we are. Thank you very much. Thank you. You are the Lord Mayor of Plymouth City Council. Yes, I'm Dr John Mahoney, who's the Lord Mayor this year. You've brought along a piece of jewellery to show me and you've brought along a photograph of a lady putting a piece of jewellery on the neck of this lady. Tell me a little bit about who these people are, please. The occasion was 1959, when the freedom of the city was being bestowed upon Lady Astor, who had been the MP for 26 years prior to that, and she was presenting, unexpectedly, a diamond necklace that she wore frequently with earrings to the then Lady Mayoress, Mrs Washbourne, and she gave the diamonds to the city in perpetuity for the Lady Mayoress to wear on certain occasions each year. The thing about Lady Astor was that she was an extraordinary woman. She came across from the United States, she married Waldorf Astor, and she was an extremely wealthy woman, he was an extremely wealthy man, and he presented her with very significant jewellery indeed. Yes. She was known for her generosity, but mostly in Plymouth, she was known for extraordinary loyalty to Plymouth city itself. Yes, I mean, he became the MP, she followed him when he inherited the peerage, she was the MP for 26 years, he was Lord Mayor throughout the war years and was largely instrumental in kick-starting the redevelopment of the city in many ways. Okay, shall we now present it? This is the interesting bit. Yes. There we are. You know, on the Antiques Roadshow we see everything, but rarely do I get presented with something that is quite so spectacular as this diamond necklace. It's not just a diamond necklace, it's like a diamond skipping rope. It's huge, it's nearly four foot long. It's also with a pair of little drops that will be worn on the ears, very subtle, very pretty. I think that this is a pre-First World War platinum, diamond and sapphire necklace that was bought second hand. I think this necklace was from a high-class American jeweller. Usually this kind of style is French, it's got no marks. I think it's American 1910. Now the feature about this necklace, I'm almost loathe to remove it from its house here because it's so beautifully presented, but I will tell you that it breaks down into no less than six separate components. And this was another feature of jewellery of that period that you could wear it as one long necklace or break it down into a series of shorter bracelets that could be worn with a shorter necklace. And there's this extension piece at the back here and then to augment it, to supplement it, you've got the drops for the ears. Right, shall we talk a bit about value? Okay, that would be very interesting. I cannot stress more that provenance is crucial. You have absolutely cast factual provenance for this piece. And if a piece of jewellery like this came up for auction, the international interest for it would be universal. Not only because it's a beautiful piece of jewellery, but it was owned by one of the most famous women who lived in this country and who was American as well. So the American market appeal would be fantastic too. What's it insured for? I gather about £300,000. £300,000. Right, well, I'll tell you, I think it would sell for probably at least £300,000 to £400,000, at least. And I think bearing in mind that provenance can make a huge difference, this has to be worth for insurance, at least £500,000 to £600,000. It is well above the most expensive and important piece of jewellery that I've ever had to film on the Antiques Roadshow. And I'm a very lucky man to have seen it.