Agassi Watch & Handmade Chain

Appraised on: July 8, 2006

Appraised in: Mobile, Alabama

Appraised by: Jeanenne Bell

Category: Jewelry

Episode Info: Mobile, Hour 1 (#1110)

Originally Aired: March 26, 2007

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (2:57)

GUEST: I inherited this from my great-grandmother on my mother's side of the family. I'm not sure how she actually obtained it, but she had that and several other pieces of jewelry. And when my mother had it, she would wear it just for special occasions. It was mainly in the safety deposit box. We didn't get to see it very often. She would bring it out for graduations and for weddings. It's just always meant a lot to me.

APPRAISER: Have you ever had it appraised?

GUEST: I had it appraised about 25 years ago, and at that time, they said it was around $2,000.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, you know, I always love it when jewelry speaks to me. It shouts out "quality, quality, quality," and we love it when those words come through. First of all, you've got a beautiful, beautiful handmade chain. Every link in the chain is handmade.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: All 18-karat gold. Then you have a functional watch with an enamel dial and the baked-on gold letters. And then you have a little applied gold dot between each of the Roman numbers... or not the Roman numbers, the Arabic numbers. (chuckling) Sorry there. But then when we turn it over, look what we have back here.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: You've got the dragonfly, which was very popular in this time period, which is your 1890-1910 time period. Has European-cut diamonds for the back and the wings and whatnot, and then it has beautiful little eyes made out of rubies.

GUEST: Rubies.

APPRAISER: You've got the lily pads with the water lilies floating on. And you've got wonderful pierce work here-- just absolutely a piece of art. Now, if that's not enough, when you open this... Open it up...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: You've got this beautiful, beautiful enamel work here. And what this enamel scene shows is a sunset on a lake with water lilies and all that. So when you have it closed, you can sort of look through a three-dimensional way and see that the dragonfly is flying over in the forefront and the beautiful scene is in the background, and it's just absolutely gorgeous. The pierce work, everything about it, is quality. Now, this was made in Switzerland.

GUEST: Switzerland?

APPRAISER: Yes, yes. And it was made by a very well known company, Agassiz.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And this is the quality they made, and the same quality... they made some very similar to this--

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: with the Tiffany name on it, too. But do you want to know what it's worth today?

GUEST: Definitely. Please.

APPRAISER: I think you're looking at a good retail price, a very reasonable retail price at $10,000.

GUEST: Ten thousand? Wow.

APPRAISER: Yes, yes. Thank you for bringing this.

GUEST: Thank you for looking at it.

APPRAISER: It's just a treat for the eyes, I'm telling you.

GUEST: That's wonderful. Thank you. Very nice. All I can say is, my great-grandmother must have had really good taste.