Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

My father-in-law started collecting Asian art, and G.T. Marsh & Sons imported many, many beautiful things. And we're talking around the '40s and '50s when he was going to G.T. Marsh. Well, he struck up a relationship with Mr. Marsh and was invited to their family home in Stinson Beach, and took my husband, Bill, with him to create something lovely for his mother. So we're talking 65 years ago.

APPRAISER

As a young man, Marsh was traveling from Australia. He's 15 and says he wants to stay in Japan for a while. And he starts to absorb the Japanese aesthetics and design. Um, something as simple as this box that this piece came in. There's Japanese dragons. It, it carried over to everything. He was one of the first to start exploring with mixed metals. When he's in the shop here, in San Francisco, they have an Italian jeweler, and I really wouldn't know this, except that one of our colleagues, who's not with us anymore, was, like, the Marsh expert.

GUEST

Really?!

APPRAISER

Yeah, his name was Barry Weber.

GUEST

All righty.

APPRAISER

And I, I miss you, Barry. He taught me about this jewelry. He just loved it-- he had a passion for it. This is oxidized steel on the surface. How do they oxidize it? Well, this Italian jeweler was a gunsmith. He knew about bluing gun barrels in the bluing technique, in the blackening technique. In this particular case, they perfected a technique where they sandblast the metal. They use chemicals, they use heat, and they would gently give the metal this nice matte finish. And then in these connectors, they usually used white gold or platinum.

All right. APPRAISER

I did test these.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

They're white gold.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

They are, in all three pieces, diamonds. And that is a cultured pearl, which would fit with coming out of Japan, and Mikimoto developing the pearls.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

Now, you have three things here. I'll, I'll break it down-- the ring. The ring has a half-carat old-European-cut diamond in it.

GUEST

All right.

APPRAISER

The beauty of the earrings-- you could tell everybody. What's so fun about the earrings?

GUEST

The pearls move back and forth. As you move your head, the pearls swing back and forth. And it's a spring action. And they clamp on so well. At 65 years, they're as good as they were done yesterday!

APPRAISER

And women who, um, don't have pierced ears...

GUEST

(chuckling) Right, right.

APPRAISER

...love these earrings.

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

And they're not too heavy.

GUEST

No, not at all!

APPRAISER

On the necklace, I have to tell you, it, it kind of blew me away. You see big brooches, you see pins. I have never seen a necklace quite like this from Marsh.

GUEST

(voice breaking) You're going to make me cry.

APPRAISER

(laughing)

GUEST

That's wonderful.

APPRAISER

It really is fabulous. I think very realistically and at auction, as a suite, I think you're looking at $30,000 to $44,000.

GUEST

(inhales deeply) Wow. Yeah.

APPRAISER

Now, to break it down, it's easy $20,000 to $30,000 just for the necklace.

GUEST

Wow.

APPRAISER

Necklace is beyond fabulous. I believe the earrings would be $5,000 to $7,000. I believe the ring would be the same. You might find a ring, you might find a pair of earrings, but you're going to have a lot of difficulty...

GUEST

Finding that. Thank you so much, Kevin.

APPRAISER

(laughing) You're welcome.

GUEST

You made my day.

APPRAISER

You made mine.

GUEST

(laughs)