Three different values, only one of which is the price
An insurance or replacement valuation states what it would cost to buy an equivalent piece new at retail today. It is deliberately high, because it exists to fund a replacement. Scrap value is the metal weight and the resale value of the stones, and it is the floor. Auction value sits between the two: what a competitive room of buyers will pay for that specific object.
For a mass-produced modern piece, auction value tends toward scrap plus a modest margin. For a signed period piece, it can be well above retail for the equivalent modern item. The gap between those two outcomes is why identification matters more than weight.
What lifts a piece above its materials
Four things reliably add value beyond gold weight and carat total:
- A maker's signature — Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron, Bulgari, Tiffany and their peers. Check clasps, gallery rails and the inside of shanks for signatures and serial numbers.
- Period and design integrity — Georgian, Victorian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and mid-century pieces that have not been altered, resized badly or had stones swapped.
- Exceptional stones — unheated sapphires, untreated rubies, Colombian emeralds, old-cut diamonds of good colour, and natural pearls, all of which need laboratory confirmation to realise their premium.
- Original fittings — the box, the case, the certificate and any original receipt.
Certificates: when they pay for themselves
A laboratory report from GIA, SSEF, Gübelin or an equivalent removes doubt and typically increases both the number of bidders and the price. It is worth commissioning for diamonds of roughly a carat and above, and for any coloured stone where treatment status decides the value — an unheated sapphire and a heated one of identical appearance can differ by an order of magnitude.
For smaller stones and everyday pieces, a report costs more than it returns. Accurate weights, measurements and honest condition notes do the work instead.
Preparing an inherited collection
Do not polish, re-plate, replace stones or have anything 'made wearable' before valuation. Polishing removes original surfaces and softens hallmarks; a replaced stone in an antique setting can turn a period piece into an altered one.
Do gather every piece of paper: old receipts, valuations, repair notes, letters and photographs of the jewellery being worn. Documented family provenance is genuinely persuasive to buyers, and photographs establishing the piece's age can be decisive where a signature is worn.
Keep pieces separated so stones do not scratch each other, and photograph the collection before it leaves your possession.
Lotting decisions
Significant single pieces are catalogued individually. Where a suite exists — necklace, earrings and bracelet from one set — keep it together; a complete parure is worth more than the sum of its parts, and splitting it is irreversible.
Lower-value costume and everyday gold is grouped into mixed lots, which is normal and efficient rather than a slight on the material.
Costs, timing and the alternative
Sellers pay a commission and buyers pay a separate fee on the hammer price; the current schedule is on the fees page. From consignment to payment, allow a couple of months for a scheduled specialist sale.
A jeweller's counter offer is immediate but is usually calculated from scrap plus a small allowance, because that is the risk-free basis. If a piece is signed, period, or built around a good stone, that basis leaves substantial money on the table.