TV Surprise as Woman Learns Her Jewelry is Worth $95,000
August 03, 20
(IDEX Online) - A rabbi's wife discovered on TV that a pearl and diamond ring she inherited was Van Cleef & Arpels, was worth $60,000 - twice as much as she thought.
She told the Antiques Roadshow in the USA how her husband had been asked to officiate at the funeral of a man who wasn't a member of his congregation.
"When she (the man's widow) passed, she left these two items to me (a bracelet and the ring) in her will and I remember admiring the ring, because it's something she would always wear."
Jeweler and appraiser Kevin Zavian surprised the unnamed guest, who thought the bracelet was the more valuable of the two items.
He described the bracelet as a 1940s classic with the eight carats of larger, rounder diamonds and 10 carats of straight baguettes, with an insurance replacement value of $35,000.
But the 1960s platinum ring with six carats of diamonds and a 14mm cultured pearl was more valuable, he said, largely because of the VCA initials. He advised her to insure it for $60,000.
The woman explained how she came to inherit the pieces. She said: "When I was working in Japan in the late 80s, my husband who was a rabbi, was asked to officiate a funeral of someone who wasn't a member of the congregation, and met this woman and she was charmed by him.
"He officiated at her husband's funeral and she invited him to dinner and he said 'my fiancé is coming back from Japan, would you mind if it was the three of us?'.
TV screengrab shows both pieces