1920s Art Deco Cartier Cigarette Box

Appraised on: July 14, 2001

Appraised in: New York, New York

Appraised by: David McCarron

Category: Decorative Arts

Episode Info: Trash to Treasure (#1220)

Originally Aired: December 15, 2008

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (1:25)

GUEST: Friends of my husband's family had passed away and the family was cleaning the house out and they didn't want it. They were going to throw it in the garbage and we liked it, so we asked them if we could have it and they gave it to us.

APPRAISER: This box is a French box made for Cartier in Paris in the '20s-- very Art Deco, very high-style Art Deco. And even though it's a smoking item, it's such wonderful quality. Smoking items are not in, necessarily, now, but still the quality is very much there. It very much has a Orientalist motif. We have the 19th-century white jade plaque here-- Chinese-- with four jeweled coral elements, one in each corner. Top one here is missing, but that's not really the end of the world.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: This is 14-karat yellow gold that has been enameled with these Chinese prosperity symbols. It's a wonderful little box on that level. Let's see, we can go in here. It is marked "Cartier, Paris." Delightful 1920s element. I would think that a good auction estimate for this would be $5,000 to $7,000.

GUEST: Oh, my God!

APPRAISER: So that's not bad for something that was going to the trash, huh?

GUEST: Right.