Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Diamond Flower Brooch with Variously-Shaped Old-Cut Diamonds. 2.25 by 2 5/8 inchhes. Weighs 39.9 grams. |
I decided to play a little game today. It is called Guess the Century of the Treasure. See if you can tell the century the item was made. First the star brooch above.
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| Diamond and gold necklace. Single-cut diamonds, 18-karat yellow gold and platinum (French marks). 36.8 cm (14½ in). |
OK, now the necklace? I'll give the answers below.
Now this bracelet.
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| Multi-Gem and enamel bangle bracelet. Cabochon emerald, rectangular-shaped orange topazes, old and single-cut diamonds, black enamel, 18-karat yellow gold and platinum. Inner diameter 5.7 cm (2¼ in), inner circumference 17.2 cm (6¾ in). |
ANSWERS: 1. Flower brooch. 18th century. Circa 1770. Auction est. $30,000 - 50,000.
2. Diamond and gold necklace. 20th century. Circa 1942. Auction est. $100,000 - 150,000.
3. Multi-gem bracelet. Assyrian revival. Late 19th century. Auction est. $100,000 - 150,000
4. Bracelet. Art Deco style. 20th century. 1925. Auction est. $150,000 - 250,000.
I have a few points to draw from this. First, it isn't easy to date an item. I remember making some big mistakes on some nice old artifacts. Don't make the mistake of thinking that "old" definitely means lower quality workmanship. The workmanship of very old items can be really (and I do mean really) good. It won't necessarily look primitive in any way at all. Of course there will items that are crudely fashioned, being made by less skilled people, but the age of items cannot be judged by the level of refinement.
A second point is that it is can be very difficult to tell the age of an item by just looking at it. Looking at a photo instead of holding the in your hand and inspecting it, makes it almost impossible without some good identifiable marks. Of course, you want to test the metal and gems.
When we look at finds, we might expect to see corrosion or other obvious signs of aging. That isn't always easy to judge as you might hope. Some things age very quickly while others, often because of the surrounding materials, barely show any effect of age. Some environments reduce or protect from various types of corrosion.
With experience you can learn to identify some things. For example, you possibly identified the last bracelet as being of the Art Deco style, which gives some idea of the item's age. On the other hand, the multi-gem Assyrian style bracelet might look ancient, but the Assyrian Revival style was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so that could be tricky.
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Now to the other end of the value spectrum.
A couple days ago I did a post about a find made by a fellow that spends a lot of time metal detecting parking lots. I mentioned that I've found good things in parking lots as well as on the streets and sidewalks. I recommend always keeping your eyes open because good things can be in quite a variety of locations including some where you might not expect to find any kind of treasure.
Shortly after doing that post I saw this metal butterfly while walking across a paved parking lot. As is often the case, street and parking lot finds are flattened from being run over. That is the case with this butterfly. This find is not worth anything, but it illustrates how things are lost in parking lots.
I once told about finding a squashed gold ring in a parking lot and spent some time looking around in a puddle to see if I could find the missing gem stone. And sometimes you'll find a recent drop in perfect condition.
I was talking with another detectorist who told about being asked by someone what he finds with his detector. He hadn't started hunting yet, and was still standing by the car and talking when he looked down and saw a gold ring. He picked it up and told them this is what I find.
A little later the other day I took a quick walk. It didn't look like I would find much, and I didn't. But I did find broken piece of glass on the sand. I couldn't tell if it was broken or just partly buried, but I could see enough of it that I thought it was a Castoria bottle. That happened to be correct, but it was broken and much of it was missing.
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| Piece of Old Castoria Bottle. |
Here it is.
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| Source: Surfguru.com. |
Looks like we can expect an increase in the surf in a couple days.
Another cold front will come through.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net