Where to go for valuations

Hi

Where do people go for valuations? Is it better to go to a jewellers or to an auction house (or somewhere different even)?

I want to get my grandmothers jewellery looked at but I'm not sure where best to go..

 

Find a jeweler who specializes in antique jewelry.
Only take a few pieces. Don't sell without a second opinion.

Are you in a big city.
Often times Antique shows have dealers who specialize in jewelry. Go look at what they are showing.

If you have a library, Warman's Old Jewelry Guide is a good one. Breaks it down by decade.

 

I also want to add:

Antique jewelry is often valued for design, quality of workmanship and time period.
If a jeweler wants to test for gold content, take your jewelry and leave. Often times antique jewelry is ruined by people testing.

From what I saw in your other post, some of your jewelry dates from the late 1800s.
Jewelry from that time period is not always marked. Gold is a soft metal, if worn over a long period of time, the marks may have worn off.

Many new jewelers are only interested in gold content and stones, not the antique value.

 

I'm guessing you are in England. If you want a valuation for insurance, try a Jeweller who has valuation credentials, if you just want an idea of what you could reasonably expect to get for it a decent auctioneer will do that.

Valuations for insurance are usually at least double the probable auction sale estimate.

The last type of valuation is a valuation for probate, which is as low as feasibly possible, to reduce any estate tax liability.

In England I can guarantee at least one decent auction house within 20 miles. You'd have to live somewhere really out of the way for it to be further.

US members do not have such a rich choice of expertise, since they are all spread out in a much larger space.

 

We also don't have such a pile of Victorian British jewelry available, so our prices tend to be a bit higher.

 

I'm in Portsmouth area so quite near to a big city.

I think most of it is middle last century, may have a few bits older than that but not much I don't think

 

I have a problem remembering that 'middle of the last century' means 'younger than me' not 1850s.

 

Christine, if you're looking for a good jewellery auction house, I'd recommend Tooveys. But do please post stuff here. I'm not bad on estimates on UK value for bling.

af, yeah, that's me too.

 

I, too, thought she was talking about old stuff

 

haha Thank you for that, I'll need to get cleaning some of them and then get the camera out.

Middle of last century is definitely not old btw

 

It's just getting on a bit. Old, when it comes to jewelry, is 20 years older than you are.