Indian Mogul Bracelet, ca. 1955

Appraised on: August 9, 2003

Appraised in: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Appraised by: Berj Zavian

Category: Jewelry

Episode Info: Oklahoma City (#809)

Originally Aired: March 1, 2004

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (2:25)

GUEST: I bought it about five or six years ago at an estate auction, and when I first saw it, I thought it was just costume, but after looking at it again, then I decided it must be of some value, and I thought, "I'm going to buy it."

APPRAISER: And you thought it was costume jewelry.

GUEST: I sure did. Because of all the different colors. Yes, I did.

APPRAISER: Okay. Do you know it comes from India?

GUEST: No. It does?

APPRAISER: You didn't know that?

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: It's Indian, lesser-grade Mogul jewelry. The better-grade Mogul jewelry has bigger stones...

GUEST: I see.

APPRAISER: The lesser-grade has smaller stones. And the beautiful part about this bracelet is that it's in mint condition. It's gold; it's most likely 18- or 19-karat gold.

GUEST: My.

APPRAISER: The older ones were made in 22- and 23-karat gold. This particular piece is not an antique; it's not a hundred years old. It's roughly somewhere around 45, 50 years old. Now, if I flip this over for a second, I'm going to show you how beautiful it is. The back side is just as pretty as the front, and a lot of the ladies would wear both sides, so you have a dual purpose on this. This is all inlaid enamel, done by hand. And there's little... The blue stones are not sapphires; they're glass. Better-grade Mogul jewelry has sapphires. And these are natural pearls, little seed pearls. So you have a very, very pretty piece of jewelry here. And a lot of these stones sometimes are not real.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Your little rubies are real. Lots of times the Indians would use jargoon, which is zircon, for the white stones. See, yours are not jargoon; yours are diamonds.

GUEST: Wonderful.

APPRAISER: So now you got a plus-plus.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Usually they're imitation stones for tourists. This was made for an Indian lady and usually came in a set: bracelet, necklace, earrings. You don't have the whole set, so you're going to have to go back to India and see if you can find the rest of the set.

GUEST: I will.

APPRAISER: If they weren't diamonds, it would be worth somewhere around... $3,000. These are diamonds, so at auction, I would figure this to go somewhere between $4,000 and $5,000.

GUEST: My goodness.

APPRAISER: What did you pay for it?

GUEST: Well, I paid, I think, either $250 or $275.

APPRAISER: Somewhere down deep you had a feeling it was good.