Inherited jewellery: what to do first

The first instinct is usually the wrong one

A box of jewellery arrives, most of it dull, some of it tarnished, and the urge is to make it look cared for again. Resist it. Cleaning is the one step that cannot be undone, and on old jewellery it routinely destroys value.

Silver dips strip tarnish indiscriminately, including the deliberate oxidised shadow in engraving that gives a Victorian piece its depth. A polishing cloth removes a thin layer of metal each time, and on a plated piece it wears through at the high points. A domestic ultrasonic cleaner will crack an emerald along its fissures, dull an opal, strip nacre from a pearl and rattle loose claws until a stone falls out.

There is also evidence to protect: wear says how long a piece was worn, patina says it is old, and a dealer reads an over-polished antique as a piece that has lost part of its history.

The first steps, in order

1. Do not clean, polish, dip, resize or repair anything. Nothing goes to a workshop until it has been recorded.
2. Photograph every piece exactly as you found it, tarnish and tangles included, before anything is separated.
3. Keep the boxes, pouches, receipts, old valuations, insurance schedules and laboratory reports, each with the piece it belongs to. A named box changes what a piece is worth.
4. Write down what people remember while they are still in the room: who owned it, where it was bought, roughly when. Note who said it, and treat it as testimony.
5. Number everything and write one inventory, a line and a photograph per piece, then share it with everyone who has an interest.
6. Store it securely in one place, and tell the relevant insurer if a large quantity has moved house.
7. Only then decide what each piece needs: nothing, a jeweller, a valuer or a laboratory.

Almost every regret here comes from something being cleaned, split up or sold before it was recorded.

Photograph as found, and photograph the marks

Photographs are the cheapest insurance available. They fix what existed, which stone was in which setting and what condition it was in – which matters for insurers, for executors, and for families otherwise relying on memory a year later.

Photograph each box before you empty it, then each piece: front, side, back, and a close-up of any stamped mark. Use indirect daylight near a window and a plain background, and put a ruler in one frame. Our guide to photographing jewellery for identification sets out the technique.

Marks deserve attention, because they are the shortest route to knowing what the metal is: 750, 585, 375, 925, PT950, a maker’s initials, an assay office symbol, a date letter. Photograph them rather than reading them out, since worn numbers are misread. A whole box is where an app earns its place: Carat transcribes the marks, identifies metal and stones and gives a first-pass estimate, enough to sort the box into pieces that need a professional and pieces that do not.

List before you divide

Dividing before valuing is the source of most family disputes about jewellery. Somebody takes the ring they associated with their mother; it turns out to be the one item of real value in the box, and the others find out afterwards. With an inventory on the table first, that is a decision rather than a discovery.

Build one numbered list: a number, a short description, the marks, the condition, who holds it and where the photograph is. Circulate it, and agree it before anybody argues about who gets what.

Only then divide, and be explicit that sentimental attachment does not track price. Families commonly take turns to choose, or balance values across shares with a cash adjustment. How an estate must be divided is a legal question with different answers in different places, so take that part to the professional handling the estate.

Get the valuation basis right

One piece of jewellery has several values at the same time, and asking for a valuation without saying which you mean produces a number that is right for a purpose you did not have.

An insurance figure used for probate overstates the estate, sometimes severely; a melt price used for insurance leaves you unable to replace anything. Which basis applies and who may prepare it vary by jurisdiction, and the tax consequences are not something to settle from a web page: ask the solicitor or tax adviser handling the estate what they need.

For an initial sense of scale, Carat reports three figures – melt, recent resale and retail replacement – with the comparable sales behind them, which helps decide which pieces justify a professional’s time. It is an estimate from photographs, not a valuation document, and no insurer or court will accept it as one. There is more on the three in what is my jewellery worth.

When to go to a jeweller, and when to a laboratory

Most boxes divide into three piles.

Nothing needed. Costume pieces, plated chains, worn silver of no particular make. Keep them because you like them.

A jeweller or a valuer. A good jeweller can test metal purity with acid on a touchstone or, better, with an x-ray fluorescence analyser that reads the alloy without marking the piece. They can also weigh it, check the settings, and separate a diamond from a simulant. For a written valuation, look for a recognised professional qualification and a fee quoted in advance, rather than a percentage of whatever they decide it is worth.

A gem laboratory. Worth it for a significant diamond, where origin, treatment and grade move the figure by multiples, and for coloured stones, where origin and heat treatment dominate the price of a ruby, sapphire or emerald. A laboratory report is also the only conclusive answer on whether a diamond is natural or laboratory-grown.

Be careful with buyers who pay by the gram

Shops offering cash for gold are buying metal, and metal is the floor of what a piece is worth, never the ceiling. A signed piece, a period piece or a good stone can be worth several times its melt value, and melting cannot be undone.

Before anyone weighs anything, know three numbers: today’s spot price of gold, the purity of each piece and its weight in grams. Melt value is weight multiplied by fineness – 18 carat is 75 per cent gold, 14 carat 58.5 per cent, 9 carat 37.5 per cent – multiplied by the spot price per gram. A trade buyer has to make a margin, so expect an offer below that figure; an offer far below it is a bad offer, not a market price. Deal with the stones explicitly, since a buyer paying melt is paying nothing for the diamonds.

Practical rules: never let pieces out of your sight while they are weighed, have the weight and purity shown to you on the scale, ask for the price per gram in writing, take quotes from more than one buyer, and be wary of postal buyers who make an offer only once your parcel has arrived.