Appraisal: Ruby & Diamond Bracelet, ca. 1895

GUEST: It was given to me from my mother.

My mother was a German countess, and her ancestors started in Russia, and then, during the Russian Revolution, they fled to France.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And at that time, they were supposed to have acquired this piece.

APPRAISER: In France?

GUEST: In France.

It was supposed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, that's the story I got from my mother.

My mother was born in France.

And then they moved to Germany, and she was raised in a castle in Munich.

APPRAISER: You have five beautiful Burmese rubies here.

They're roughly somewhere around four carats, maybe four-and-a-half carats.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: In the trade, we call the best rubies pigeon-blood red rubies.

And that's what you have here.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: They're bright.

And they're not treated, they're natural, and... You know the bracelet was made in France.

GUEST: I was assuming that it was.

APPRAISER: Oh, okay.

GUEST: Since my mother told me that it was Marie Antoinette's, but... APPRAISER: Okay, well, Marie Antoinette never saw this bracelet.

GUEST: Okay.

(laughs) APPRAISER: The hallmarks, the double eagles in the head, tell you it was made in France and it's 18-karat gold.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: The gold is on the reverse side.

If you turn it over like that...

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: You see the yellow gold.

The top, all the diamonds, they're very tiny full-cut diamonds.

They're set in platinum.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So this is late 1800s when it was made.

GUEST: Okay.

Not Marie Antoinette.

APPRAISER: Not Marie Antoinette.

She could never have wore it.

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: Ever wear this bracelet?

GUEST: No, my mother used to wear it all the time.

In fact, she left it in a car that my father sold.

And she realized that she had left it and went back the next day, and it was still in the glove box, so... APPRAISER: Oh, my God.

GUEST: (laughs) I guess I'm fortunate to still have it.

APPRAISER: A piece like this in today's market could easily sell for somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000.

GUEST: This piece?

APPRAISER: This piece, at auction.

GUEST (chuckling): Well, I'll hold onto it for a long time, then.