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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 379265, member: 5833&quot;]The quality of this lovely brooch is light years beyond the necklace you posted right before.&nbsp; In my experience, if the jeweller has bothered to curve the pin stem to follow the curve of the design,&nbsp; you already know you are looking at a higher quality piece.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Red gem quality corundum, <i>i.e.</i>, ruby, has been grown in labs for more than 100 years now, in fact, came onto the market around the same time as others have placed the brooch in, so may not be worth getting overly involved in figuring out where the rubies came from.&nbsp; A Russian lab is a distinct possibility.&nbsp; Watchmakers got onto them first.</p><p><br /></p><p>Imagine Mississippi pearls were cheaper back then.&nbsp; Prices for them now astound me.&nbsp; If that&#039;s what these are, wouldn&#039;t surprise me if the current market value of these, not just each but as a matched set, would outweigh the value of the gold.&nbsp; Bought one about the size of a small peanut a couple of years ago &amp; it was at least $90.</p><p><br /></p><p>Think the trombone safety mechanism might be an addition to what was a simple C clasp.&nbsp; Can certainly see why you would want to make it more secure.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]130825[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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