Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger Perfume Flask, ca. 1960
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GUEST:
I received it as a gift from one of my relatives after my mother passed. It wasn't hers, it was just something given to me by one of my other relatives.
APPRAISER:
And I want to show this to everybody to see what you've brought. You've got this lovely box that opens up. And so inside, we have this object. The question is, what is this?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And so what we have here is a perfume flask, and the flask is in the shape of a stylized guard. He looks sort of like either a Swiss guard or an Italian guard. And what's nice about it, it's set with emeralds and sapphires, and on this side, there's a star with some diamonds and a ruby. And he's got some little diamonds set into the crown of his headdress. And his head unscrews. And this is the dipper for the perfume. So you would put a little bit of perfume in here. Probably made in the 1960s. It was meant to sit on either a lady's dressing table, or you could actually carry this in your purse if you were going out for a dressy evening.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
The box says, "Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger". And Jean Schlumberger as a designer that Tiffany had in the 1950s and 1960s. He passed away, but they're still doing designs from his design book. So Schlumberger is a very important name to the Tiffany brand. And also, on the bottom of the piece, too, it's signed "Schlumberger" as well. Now, there were a number of versions of these.
GUEST:
There were?
APPRAISER:
The exact same form, but some have jewels, some don't. Some are elaborately set with jewels. So yours is quite a nice one with all the jewels that it has. Have you ever had this piece appraised?
GUEST:
No, I received it as a gift last year, but I didn't know if it was real gold. The box was cool, and it said "Tiffany", and I said, "Well, I don't know if that's real or not, but..."
APPRAISER:
Well, it's a lovely presentation box, certainly. So the piece is 18 karat gold, and these are very collectible.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
And at auction, if this item were to be auctioned, I would put a presale estimate on this of between $8,000 and $10,000.
GUEST:
Seriously?
APPRAISER:
Yes, yes. They're highly collectible.
GUEST:
Thank you so very much. I had no idea. And, yes, I'm going to really thank my relative who gave it to me.
APPRAISER:
Yes, you should.
Appraisal Details
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