Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: My husband inherited it from his aunt.

I had brought it to a jeweler in Saratoga.

He told me that the chain is platinum, and he wasn't sure what it was worth, but he thought it was very nice.

And he said about $10,000.

APPRAISER: $10,000.

GUEST: And I-I had no idea if that was high or low or if he was just being nice.

APPRAISER: Well, it's a family piece; you weren't looking to sell it.

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: But you want to know what you inherited.

GUEST: Yes.

Could I wear it to work, bicycling, or only for special days?

APPRAISER: There's a few carats of diamonds, but I would assume that he was basing some of the value on that blue stone in the middle.

GUEST: I think so.

APPRAISER: And do you know what stone that is?

GUEST: Sapphire.

APPRAISER: That's right.

It's a very special sapphire.

This sapphire is Kashmir.

GUEST: Kashmir.

APPRAISER: From the West Himalayas.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: In about 1879, they discovered a sapphire mine in Kashmir.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And the sapphires that came out of the Kashmir mines were the most famous, the rarest and the most beautiful sapphires in the world.

The color of this stone is the color that all sapphires want to be and very few of them achieve.

GUEST: Ooh... APRAISER: It is the definition of what a perfect sapphire blue should look like.

GUEST: Oh!

That's fabulous.

APPRAISER: It has some purple, it has some red, but it's the depth of the blue.

And it's what's described as a soft blue.

The mining there only lasted about eight years, and that mine dried up.

The Maharaja of Kashmir went to the British government and said, "Can you give me some support and get me some geologists and maybe we can find some more of these Kashmirs?"

And, in the 1930s, they brought out more Kashmir sapphires, but the specimens were smaller.

Now, judging from the size of your sapphire, which is about four carats, this is from the second generation of the Kashmir mines in the 1930s.

GUEST: Oh, right.

APPRAISER: A piece from 1870 would have been constructed differently GUEST: Oh, right, I see.

APPRAISER: and in a different style.

There's only a few gem labs in the world that have experts that can give you documents that tell you that the stone comes from Kashmir.

We're very confident that it does.

All of us are just floored with the depth and intensity of the color.

GUEST: It's beautiful.

APPRAISER: At retail, in a fine jewelry store, a stone this size in its setting will bring between $40,000 and $50,000.

GUEST: Oh, that's lovely.

Between $40,000 and $50,000?

APPRAISER: $40,000 to $50,000.

GUEST: Yes, I think I'll take very good care of it.

APPRAISER: I'm sure you will.

GUEST: It's lovely.