19th-Century Gold Watch Fob Chain
Appraised Value:
$4,000 - $6,000
IMAGE: 1 of 1
Appraisal Video: (2:36)
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: About 25 years ago, my husband and I were asked to go to Colorado to clean out an aunt's home who had come back here to the state to be with family, because she was in her 90s. And we were asked just to bring personal items, so we packed up small things we thought she might have enjoyed through her life, and dresses and purses and that kind of stuff. When we got it back here, she said, "What am I going to do with all of this? I don't want it-- you take it." And then, we thought, "Well, what are we going to do with all this stuff?" So, we took it back to our home. And one of the purses-- just an old plastic purse-- had a lot of what I hope was just costume jewelry, and we just kind of pitched that. I hope I didn't throw out a big jewel. But in the bottom of that purse was this chain. And it's a watch fob, I believe, and I don't know anything more about it.
APPRAISER: Well, you're right about that. Now, this chain had to have a fabulous watch on it.
GUEST: Oh...
APPRAISER: You said you noticed a mark over here. Right inside of here, what did you see?
GUEST: "14 karat."
APPRAISER: Right.
APPRAISER: It is, in fact, 14-karat yellow gold.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Beautiful old watch fob chain, probably from the late 1800s. This is all handmade.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Yeah. You take metal, you draw it down and make it round. You take it, you roll it out. You make it flat for these sections. You cut it out, you pierce it. You knurl the edges. Even the piece here for the bar that hangs down for the watch fob.
GUEST: Unbelievable.
APPRAISER: You said it-- fabulous. The watch would hang off of the swivel.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The swivel opens and closes, and then this piece is where you would have another fob hanging down, sometimes a seal.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: Sometimes a pocket knife or something like that. It weighs 60 pennyweights. That's a measurement we use to measure gold.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: There's 20 pennyweights in a troy ounce. So, here we have three troy ounces. Now, if you went someplace at today's gold price, and you were just going to scrap this out, you have $1,600 just in scrap gold.
GUEST: Oh, wow!
APPRAISER: But this isn't the kind of thing you would sell like that. This piece today, at auction, I would say, $4,000 to $6,000.
GUEST: No way!
APPRAISER: Yeah. Unbelievable. We could have thrown it right out with the purse. It's really one of the prettiest chains I've ever seen, watch fob chains.
GUEST: Wonderful! Wow! Wow. Wow. (laughs)
