QuestionHi have an Edwardian fire opal necklace and I was wondering what it is worth. I had it appraised about 25 years ago and it was appraised at $1600.00 If I were to sell it, what steps do you think I should take? Have you seen many of these necklaces? It was originally made around the years of 1900 - 1910 from what I have read.
AnswerHi Jenine,
Thanks for your question. Im sure you can appreciate that its supremely difficult to determine the value of your jewellery without seeing it .So , in that respect I can not give you a value , and with opal ,not even an image is enough to value it.It must be seen and handled to be assessed .I could offer a guess, but thats surely not good enough. Let me ask you this first, how do you know its Edwardian 1890- 1914 approx ?Is that been certified by an expert or recognised jeweler or gemstone valuer? I have seen some necklaces in England that was opal from some of the first opal fields in Australia , that being the White Cliffs Opal field in western NSW, the opal was white base colour. Other opal at that time was Boulder Opal from Queensland, which is enormously popular now , It is very strong colour on a brown ironstone base . So if your stones are whitish , there's every chance it is from White Cliffs .If the stones are set in 18 k gold then you can be sure that they are valuable , if 14k then they are less valuable , if 9k even less. The step to sell it if you must, would be to have it certified by a jeweller or valuer, and then have 2 values put on it . 1 . Is the replacement value for insurance ... this should be the biggest as they just dont find this material anymore at White cliffs, any thing else is not the same. The next value is for selling , it will differ from the insurance value as they always are . With the documentation and some identification of the gold and workmanship , hallmarks if any , maybe even a story of how it came into your possession, is all a part of " Romancing the stone" that will go a long way to assisting the selling of it.If it was given to you by your grandmother , Ide be reluctant to sell it ,if I were you .However, sometimes these items have to go ... I hope that helps you , my best wishes kind regards Rod Keady
