Antiques Roadshow

brought this piece to be appraised which was your mother's she was a collector of jewelry and this was a fabulous piece she told me it came from Siberia what was your mother doing in Siberia teenager she was with my father at the time when they were traveling the world on their expedition to create a world peace they stayed with families in each country and in Siberia they stayed with a nice family there and on departure they dug this up from where they were hiding their precious things so they gave us a moan I tested it with jeweler's acid which is how we can do it when it's not marked and it is solid 18 karat gold and quite substantial I don't have a scale that goes this high for gold I would say it's at least a quarter of a pound of 18 karat gold but the work is extraordinary I also pour it over this bracelet looking for a Russian mark there's absolutely nothing on it to indicate a country of origin which is not unusual in antique jewelry they just didn't always mark things this is what would be called properly a cuff bracelet it's a heart bracelet that's hinged with the catch and the motif is a buckle and the buckle is applied but in matching decoration there's engraving of flowers beneath the buckle and if we spin it around we will see engraving on the underside or the back of the bracelet and this has a crane and a swallow which was a favorite Victorian motif and a floral design so we have a very wide heavy important 18 karat gold bracelet which I would date from the 1870s in the retail environment a bracelet like this would easily command $12,000 in a retail store specializing in financing jewelry such as this interesting but at auction it might go in law it could be more at auction could be less one never knows depends on who's there that wants to fight over it that day well it's so bloody unique it is unique you you