Featured Beautiful brooch- Potter mullen

I know an appraiser is going to charge me an arm and a leg to look at all of these. I would be so appreciative to just be pushed in the right direction on what I should pay to have appraiser and what is most likely costume jewelry..

 

This is much higher quality than the marcasite piece. The maker is "Potter and Mellen". Might be 14K.

 

Wow, it is a beauty. I don't know Potter and Mellen, but that is a gorgeous Australian white opal (not milk opal!), so not costume at all.

 

https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/potter-mellen-inc

 

Could the name be Potter Mellen and a real opal?

 

This is excellent advice as many of the pieces you have posted seem pretty high end, and will want to try to get market value for, if selling. (I may have missed this, were these pieces part of an inheritance?)

 

I will take all the advice you can give me. I don't want to sell any of my mother's things but I would love to know their worth..

 

Wow! Never heard of Potter and Mellen, kudos to @Lucille.b !
@Any Jewelry and @Hollyblue followed as "short of a neck" in this race!

Laura, your brooch is a beauty high gold carat and colorful vitreous enamel, what is the measure of the piece?

 

Almost 2" x 1.25"

 

@Lucille.b Yes, my mom passed away. Her mother owned an antique shop in the 70' and 80'. I think many of these things were hers.

 

Woahhhh! you have a monster piece

 

And Laura, post anything you want that you think is costume, some costume pieces are worth more than fine jewelry!

 

Looks 18k to me.

 

crack at the bottom seems strange to me. is this a real stone?

 

Yes, Rec, it appears to be a real opal to me. Opals are very soft. I cannot see it coming through to the front.

 

on this site the cracks and crazing seem different hence my question
https://www.opalauctions.com/learn/...e-difference-with-crazing-to-crack-in-an-opal

 

Natural fissure that wasn't ground out when the opal was cut,the backside looks slightly domed and cutter didn't grind the back flat to add extra weight and price to the opal.

 

It looks like the back of Laura's opal has some of the matrix stone in it, that is where the cracks are. That could be why it looks different from crazing in opals proper.