Hunting in the New Era

I'm a jewelry hound, and a cheap one at that - I won't pay for anything I'll lose money on if I change my mind later (a hangover from digging out from under a mountain of debt). Trouble is, while the WOW finds still exist in the jewelry realm (and I've had a few lately) that segment is drying up - too many people know the price of gold, and too many believe the current stasis denotes a "new normal".

So, even though I've always glanced at other things, lately I've been widening my scope even more. Art is my current training ground, but (maybe because everyone is focused on jewelry) non-jewelry silver has given me the biggest surprises.

The occasional piece always slips through the cracks (examine everything!) but some lately have been stunning. A few weeks back, in fact, I found a snuff or pill box in a jewelry case that had just two marks - a star and a letter. Plate, right? I bought it ($2 is always worth a risk) and researched just a bit ... to find I had a Spanish silver (915) box from the early '30's.

Then there was yesterday. I'm visiting family, and went to a local shop. A pair of earring (925 with 14k wires) was a nice find but a quick sweep of the knick-knacks have me a tarnished nut dish that had incised numbers and what looked like "sterling".

And if you look very closely, you'll also see "Cartier".

Good Hunting to all!

Franken-stuff

A friend of mine told me once that when you have a timepiece that has the case of one company, the dial of another, and the works of yet one more, you have a "Franken-watch."  I've found several in my treasure questing - in fact, I recently found out that making a generic gold case that would fit several makers' watches was fairly common (as well as "dipping" rose gold, which wasn't as popular, into white gold to mimic platinum).  We as collectors disdain these, but if it works it works, yes?

A few months back, I found another Franken-thing.

Uninspiring from the back, I know:  brass plaque with something soldered to the front and back ... badly.  What do you expect with a $4 price tag, right?

Then the story unfolds.  Shiny edges.  Hm, the price on the sticker looked as if it might have once been forty-something but the "something" had been scratched out with the same ink.

Look at that attitude.  And that hair!  She's really lovely!

So I said I'd take it, telling the clerk, with a smile, that I can't go wrong for that price. 

"What price do you think it is?" she asked after frowning at the tag.

"Four," I said.  "Isn't that right?"

She looked at me, then at the tag, studying it from different directions, but I had been right there while I looked and she knew I didn't change the price.  "Sounds right," she said, and I paid and walked out.

It was only later I saw the "10K" mark on the ring base.  I'd already figured out the cameo was stone.  Edged in 14K gold.  That had been there, sitting in the costume jewelry, for who knows how long.

Remember ... look at everything.