Miriam Haskell Jewelry, ca. 1950

Appraised on: July 10, 2004

Appraised in: Omaha, Nebraska

Appraised by: Jeanenne Bell

Category: Jewelry

Episode Info: Omaha, Hour 1 (#904)

Originally Aired: January 24, 2005

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (2:23)

APPRAISER: How did you get interested in collecting Miriam Haskell jewelry?

GUEST: Well, basically, in the beginning I collected just mainly rhinestone jewelry. It wasn't marked; I didn't know too much about it. And then I started seeing some Miriam Haskell jewelry, and I just loved the intricacies of how it was made, how it was wired together and the beauty of it, and I just fell in love with it.

APPRAISER: And you've been collecting it for about how long now?

GUEST: I'd say 20 years.

APPRAISER: What's the least you've ever paid for a piece?

GUEST: Oh, probably $25.

APPRAISER: And then what is the most you've ever paid?

GUEST: The most recent piece that we bought as this piece, and it was $160.

APPRAISER: Well, you have a very, very good eye, Jane.

GUEST: Well, thanks.

APPRAISER: Miriam Haskell is a very popular and very collectible manufacturer of jewelry. Actually, she was a designer.
She was born in 1899 and died in Louisville in 1981, so she lived a long life; she was very, very productive. Her parents were from Russia originally. Her trademark is having the cast filigree and then she would take the different embellishments of the piece and wire them into that filigree, and she never used glue. Another thing were her beautiful pearls, and most of them were the baroque kind of pearls, like you have here. And these were all handmade for her over in Japan, and they were glass pearls strung on silk, and she used a beautiful, beautiful mixture of colors. She wasn't timid with colors, if you can see from what you got here. And she used a trademark like this, that's "Miriam Haskell" in the block design. This was used from about 1938 on. She also used a trademark that was an oval tag. Those two are always done in a block style, but after she died, a lot of times they also used "Miriam Haskell" in a script style, too. Keep in mind, none of the stones are real. What we have here is worth about $20,000 retail.

GUEST: Oh, you're kidding. Oh, my. Well, I think my husband will be pleased, and I think he might let me buy more jewelry now.

APPRAISER: Yes.