GUEST: My great aunt lived in North Hollywood, California, and she had a friend there who gave these to her.

Uh, that woman, when she was very young, married a European count or some royal personage and when he died, they were childless.

The state was en... the estate was entailed.

This jewelry is all she had.

It is my understanding that this originally contained either emeralds or sapphires, and including the family crest on the ring.

She fell on hard times.

She sold the stones and replaced it with these stones and had the crest carved into the stone on the ring.

APPRAISER: And didn't you tell me as well that she worked on films in Hollywood?

She was a historical advisor to the films?

GUEST: That's right.

Fo-- they went through a period in the '40s with, um, Essex and Elizabeth and, and those kinds of films, and she gave them court protocol and stuff from... APPRAISER: So she really knew... GUEST: ...yes.

APPRAISER: ...what she was doing... GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...when she was, um, putting the costumes together or the jewelry together for a show.

GUEST: Right.

Right.

APPRAISER: Well, she showed her knowledge in terms of these pieces of jewelry, because when she replaced the stones, um, she copied the crest that was on the original stone, as you had originally indicated, and she kept the integrity of the piece by replicating the crest that would have been on the original piece.

Sideways you see the, uh, beautiful openwork gallery.

That was done at the beginning of the 19th century.

And this was done by hand, and it's beautifully crafted.

Uh, this was obviously made, uh, by someone who was a fine jeweler because the workmanship is so good, and it would have been in keeping with the stone and the valuable stone that you were talking about that was in here originally.

And when you look at the brooch, if you hold the brooch up, you will see that the motifs that are in the ring, the little floral motifs, are repeated in the brooch, and the geometric quality, uh, is repeated in the brooch again, so that everything about this shows that the pieces were made at the same time.

Do you have any idea of how much this is worth?

GUEST: No, I know that the stones are not valuable.

APPRAISER: Well, they're a pretty color for a citrine.

They're a, a nicer color than is usually on the market.

What do you think that they're worth?

GUEST: Maybe $500 for the pair.

APPRAISER: $500 for the pair, well, it's, it's my, uh, pleasure to tell you that a pair, uh, this ring and this brooch together are probably worth about $3,000.

GUEST: No kidding?

APPRAISER: Yeah.

Because of this beautiful workmanship that I pointed out to you, because of how finely crafted this is, the integrity of the piece, and how uncommon it is to find jewelry that hasn't been damaged.

So you're very lucky to have this set.

GUEST: Yes, I am.

APPRAISER: And I'm so pleased that you brought this today to show it to me and to share it with me.

GUEST: Me too.

(laughs) APPRAISER: Uh, because I've seen a little bit of history.