Antiques Roadshow

These pieces were left to my mother from my great-aunt

a diamond brooch, a French paste hanger and what I was made to understand with this is candle snipper.

APPRAISER

This is the last will and testament of Miss Mabel Hastings.

GUEST

Yes.

APPRAISER

It's very interesting about getting pieces from an estate. When you're not present at the estate appraisal, they send you or ship you items that are completely different than what's in the will.

GUEST

Yes. Which is apparently what happened here.

APPRAISER

And we can prove that because we have the documents. This particular will and document-- on the first number it says "my diamond brooch," which is true. This is a diamond brooch. The second item that was willed is "my other diamond brooch." This is not a brooch, it's a pendant. So already we're thinking about something as not being right in the will. And "my cornelian enamel necklace gold." And there is no gold here whatsoever. What we have here is a will that has not been fulfilled properly. Therefore, your mother, at the time when she received it, she should have complained. But of course back in 1956 she didn't complain and now we're 2000, it's too late. The pin is a very nice gold pin in the back with rose diamonds on top, but the diamonds are set in silver. So that tells us the pin was made somewhere around 1865, 1870-- in that area. It happens to be a very nice little scarf pin. But the other diamond pin-- which this is not a pin, it's a pendant-- is silver, but they're not diamonds. They are paste. They call it French paste-- foiled from the back to look like diamonds so therefore probably made in France. It's fairly old, turn of the century, but it has nothing to do with diamonds. And that is not a candle snuffer; it is a grape shears because it has a sharp edge to it. And it's not silver. It's silver-plated.

GUEST

Really?

APPRAISER

So that's the other thing. It's a very collectible piece. All in total, the value is not important.

GUEST

No.

APPRAISER

This is worth about $150. And your diamond pin on the open market today is worth somewhere around $1,000.

GUEST

Really?

APPRAISER

So your mother did not get her full inheritance.

GUEST

No.