Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: We had friends, a wonderful older couple who collected art and wine and beautiful things.

And on Christmases and birthdays, around their beautiful dining room table, they would come out and they'd bring a painting, or a piece of silver, or a piece of jewelry like this and gift it to us.

APPRAISER: What year do you figure you got this from?

GUEST: I would think about 1995.

APPRAISER: It's a clip brooch.

It's made by a gentleman called Pierre Sterl.

He's born in a... ...somewhat wealthy family in Paris.

And World War I, around that time period, his father dies, and he goes to work and live with his uncle, who owns a jewelry store called Maynier-Pincon.

Soon after, he's working there and designing, his uncle realizes he's quite talented, and he works there and hones his chops, as they say.

But eventually, he moves on.

He works for Ostertag, Boucheron and Chaumet.

I mean, that-that's a, you know, that's the hit list.

I mean, three fabulous French jewelers.

But in 1934, he goes out on his own and he opens his first shop.

He's known for working with experimental gemstones.

Do you have any idea what the head of the bird is made out of?

GUEST: I do not.

APPRAISER: This is a type of rock gemstone that comes from the foothills of Kilimanjaro.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: It's ruby zoisite.

It has another name called anyolite.

It's ruby crystals embedded in the zoisite matrix, which is the green portion.

It's not two stones that were put together.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: This occurs naturally when these stones were being formed under intense heat and pressure.

I called my dad, who's one of the original jewelry guys at the table.

He's 95, and without a hesitation, "It's a hummingbird."

So we kind of check it out.

We're going with hummingbird.

For anybody out there thinks it's not a hummingbird, let us know.

The next element, the bamboo.

Wonderfully, just curved and executed.

Then you have the feathers.

You notice how they have all this texture?

GUEST: Yes, they do.

APPRAISER: Then you have the accents of the diamond.

So it's done in 18 karat gold.

There's 66 tiny little stones.

They're probably two carats in total.

The white sections on top of the 18 karat yellow gold are platinum.

On the back, there's some French assay marks.

One of the marks is an eagle.

It tells us that it's 18 karat yellow gold.

It's also signed "Sterl Paris."

And then it has some stock numbers there.

Birds were one of his specialties.

This is from around 1960.

These are highly desirable.

At an auction today, I would put this in for $30,000.

GUEST: Really?

Really?

I can't believe it.

APPRAISER: I'm not done.

That's the low.

$30,000... ...to $50,000.

GUEST: I can't believe it.

It's just beautiful, isn't it?