Spanish Earrings & Dragonfly Brooch

Appraised on: August 10, 2002

Appraised in: Charlotte, North Carolina

Appraised by: Joyce Jonas

Category: Jewelry

Episode Info: Wild Things (#916)
Charlotte, Hour 2 (#717)

Originally Aired: November 24, 2003

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (2:50)

GUEST: Well, this dragonfly was my great-grandmother's, and her husband gave it to her, and then she passed it on to her daughter-- my grandmother. She had it in her closet, and my father, when he was eight years old, went to her closet and saw the dragonfly and said, "This will be one day for my daughter." And so he never gave it to his wife.

APPRAISER: I'm glad he wasn't my husband.

GUEST: So he, uh... It went straightly to me and, um... so I've had it ever since.

APPRAISER: Wonderful. Weren't you lucky? And the earrings?

GUEST: And the earrings were also passed on to me.

APPRAISER: Your mother got to wear them, though?

GUEST: Well, my mom doesn't have earring holes, so... and I do.

APPRAISER: Pierced ears.

GUEST: Pierced earrings. So I got... I got them. This is my grandmother and my grandfather, and they're actually going to a wedding and my grandmother is wearing these earrings. This is taken in Spain, and you can see the cars are from the era.

APPRAISER: This is, of course, as you know, a dragonfly brooch. Going to take it off here so that we can see that. And it's "en tremblant," which means that it quivers. The wings move, and as the lady wore it, the wings would move. This is platinum over gold. It's in between Edwardian and Art Nouveau. This is a transitional piece-- 1900-- and it's, as you can see, a large, important piece. This was not a... a shy piece, if you will. When you turn it over, you see that in the back, you see that pin back. That pin back unscrews and the whole pin back comes off and it's replaced by this back, which enables the wearer to adapt it to her hair. And you mentioned that your grandmother wore it in her hair.

GUEST: Both my great-grandmother and my grandmother wore it in their hair more than as a... as a brooch.

APPRAISER: It's quite wonderful, and you can see it, up here, the size of it. Now, do you have any idea what these things are worth?

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: No. Well, how about the brooch, this wonderful dragonfly, is worth between $20,000 and $25,000?

GUEST: Wow!

APPRAISER: And the earrings, which are quite lovely, are worth about $7,000.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: So you've come in with some wonderful, wonderful pieces, and they are not replaceable. These are not pieces that were made in duplicate or triplicate. These were one-of-a-kind pieces.

GUEST: One-of-a-kind. That's nice.

APPRAISER: We think it's Spain, as the country of origin, because if it was French, there would have been hallmarks on it, and there are no hallmarks on it. So we're going to go with Spain, because that's where your family came from.

GUEST: Exactly.

APPRAISER: And that's indeed where they did have jewelers that could make this kind of jewelry.

GUEST: Wonderful.