Searching estate sale jewelry boxes and more! what will we find today?!

hi I'm Alex archo I've been buying and selling antiques since I was a kid over the years generations of our family have gotten involved in the business and I'll search just about anywhere I can to find hidden treasures both big and small I never know what I'll turn up next it's about exploring new places seeing new sites and having fun and even though sometimes I get over my head we try and make things a little better along the way this is curiosity in hi everybody and welcome to today's episode I was just out on the other side of town in fact it was another town entirely um and I was able to uh look around the house I was able to buy a few things I brought that stuff home to show you now it's not a big box of stuff but there are a few things that I thought were kind of interesting so I'm going to crack the trunk open here and bring the stuff inside and we'll sort through we'll sift through and I'll give you guys an idea of uh what we picked up today plus I didn't really have a great chance to go through some of these boxes so this will be like a discovery for me so let's get inside the house do an unboxing and see what I found today let's go so here is the box it's not super big it's not like a truckload of stuff it's not a house full of stuff but still sometimes interesting things come in small packages so let me show you some of the things that I picked up the first was this handcarved wooden elephant likely came from India or um South Asia somewhere in that maybe Malaysia or somewhere it's interesting because it has this really ornate brass work and it's all hammered on you can see little nails there all the way around so somebody had to take all this little bit of brass and hand hammer and H for hand form that all the way around uh even up the trunk really really interesting piece um I was told that the family had done some travel in in the 20s and 30s to various parts uh over SE so they figured this was from around that time and based on the uh sort of cracking that we see and a bit of the patina it's possible um you know that doesn't look like it was made yesterday I don't know about 1930s but I thought it was cool plus the trunk is up and uh truck a trunk that's up is good luck according to uh folklore or Superstition so we got a lucky elephant right there these little guys there's two of them that one and this one they're basically identical now uh she had thought that these came from um an uncle that had served in World War II and perhaps they did but they aren't wartime era these are a little bit newer these would date to sometime around the early 1950s and if you look carefully at the hats that one says uh chusen or chuss and this one says Arcadia those these were both um steam ships that were built around 1950 so sometime between 1950 and 1960 you would have gone on board and they would have had like a little gift shop area there and you could have picked these up they also used to make um stuffed uh versions of the sailors with the name on it I've got uh one of those that actually came off of the SS America which is a pretty uh Infamous shipwreck it's it's now gone but it was uh basically looked like the Titanic um but these are super cool um this is just after the war this is made in Germany and it says specifically made in Dresden Germany and I thought those were neat so somebody who collects um steamship memorabilia um might think those are neat or if somebody's in in the service and they're you know in the Navy might think that's cool there's a bunch of reasons why a person might collect these figures and uh the condition is good on them they're a little Dusty albe it but nothing a little cleaning won't take care of so I thought why not those those are neat I don't buy a lot of cups and a lot of glass wear but this one was kind of uh more on the novelty side so it's got this lady figure on the right for the handle and it says the devil sends the naughty wind to blow the girl skirts high but God is just he sends the dust to Blind the bad man's eye so a little um probably would have been barware from the 1940s or 50s just sort of a funny little thing and uh that kind of stuff if it's if it's odd or unusual it typically sells um and that's why when I saw this somebody made this probably in like a pottery class or something they made this little devilish looking figure here uh they gave him a red glaze he's got a uh you know he's got his best hat on and they gave him sort of cat eyes and a goatee so um I've seen people walk around with a goatee in a little black hat and I never uh saw them have cat eyes but you never know he's got his tongue sticking out I just thought it was kind of a fun piece it's obviously handmade uh somebody made this maybe in school or something I wonder what Mark they got but I thought it was just kind of fun and different and and quirky so picked that guy up too so a little bit of ceramic stuff a little bit of pottery um we have a this is a ladi's wristwatch easy to date this one because right inside the uh brochure it says 1981 oddly it's a mechanical watch so it's not um it's it's not a a battery operated watch uh in the in the least and at this time in 1981 it would have been unusual to still have a mechanical watch it's a Winder and it does still work and does wind and I was told that this was uh given to the lady by a Bo a former boyfriend who um he thought she was pretty special and got her this watch and she said she never wore it even once and I said so no emotional attachment to it she said no she's she's got a different husband now and everything worked out good U but we ended up with the watch and it's nice that it's got its box and papers and everything it's basically like brand new like I said she never even wore it once but somebody's heart went into that at one time for a um a love uh that a courtship that uh didn't happen but a nice thought and uh anyway I'm sure it'll look nice on somebody else's wrist in the future um oh yeah this was an odd little thing I probably had candies in it at some point um Sometimes they used to fill these things up with candies and uh you give it as a gift but on the front it says um South and on sea so probably a little World War I am era sort of ambulance novelty piece and um made in England I don't know if it was just for decoration or if it did have candy if I'm honest a lot of times the candy ones were made out of glass so somebody watching at home can correct me and tell me what this is it might just be one of those things where it's just a tourist piece that was sold to go on the Shelf as a trinket but I thought it was cool it's an ambulance it's an old uh almost looks like an old you know turn ofth the century kind of Rena um turn of the last century I should say now but kind of a neat little thing if it has wheels on it I'm usually kind of interested so we've got a couple jewelry boxes here oh yes that one's got some weight to it is that everything no oh yeah more lucky elephants these are um Stone carved Stone I think it's Alabaster and there's a matching set of bookends elephant bookends how cool is that so let's get into these jewelry boxes I guess we'll look at the little one first here and uh get an idea of what we have kind of a fun little assortment of stuff okay actually even before I dig into the jewelry box look at how cool this box itself is it's handcarved it's got ships on it this nice sort of brass detail you put a lock through there looks like it was a walnut almost or something kind of a burlwood interesting so um here is a little pocket watch and uh looks like the original case for it because this ring looks exactly the right size um it's got its key which is good that's key to have the key um what's interesting about this if you find a pocket watch and it has a key that's likely before 1844 because um it could it's right around that time pre1 1850 let's say because in 1844 I think it was um uh Adrien philppe of Patek Philipe the very famous watch maker invented the stem wind for the top of a pocket watch so if you ever see a pocket watch that has the um you wind it from the top that is after 1850 or so prior to that you had a key and the key was used to set both the time and also to wind it um this is in Roman numerals more popular would be the Arabic which is just one two three like typical you'd see um those were used more by Railways and stuff this would have been sort of a fine like a gentleman's pocket watch not a very big one might have even been a lady's pocket watch uh let's open the back and see what it looks like so when you open the back you've got these little holes and that is where you would set the time and wind it with those two little spots there so every time you had to wind your watch you had to pop the back open on it there's the movement itself but I noticed something kind of interesting it I could tell this was at least a gold plate but in fact it is a solid 18 karat well I shouldn't say solid it's 18 karat gold if it was solid it would be what 24 um but this is uh 18 karat which is still high Purity and uh it looks like that whole outer case has beautiful sort of etching and detail on it um it'll have to go in for a service to get it working but what a pretty little thing uh especially a watch that dates to pre1 1850 it looks like somebody put a new Crystal on it uh at set point cuz it's in fantastic shape so nice little set with its original box right there uh watch like that could be $5 to $700 or so to the right person um if it's the right maker if this was a higher-end maker could be more but uh it's a very simple movement um although it is an 18 karat case really pretty they put all the the detail the emphasis on the outside of the watch rather than the inside but it's still super cool um and here we have a whole mess load of jewelry and I don't even know what we have in here this is going to take some sorting I might have to do uh my magical technique of getting a cookie tray and dumping this stuff out and trying to find the matches for it oh look there's a there's a little that looks like a gold ring the center Stone's missing it's got two little diamonds there I can pretty well guarantee that's going to be can I read it it is 18 karat 18 kt CT but it says it might be plated PL oh that could be actually unlikely that that's plated have to check that one out a little closer because with diamond setting like that it would be unusual to have it plated but it does look like it's um got a little bit of uh wear down to a different finish maybe it's not 100% gold look at this funny little case this came in isn't that neat I've never I've never seen a ring case quite like this what's this paper in here what does this say is this like the warranty for it what on Earth is this okay oh all right Certificate of Insurance we hereby certify that a ring valued at £315 purchased from Austin Bolson creating King Street Reading has been issued an insurance policy date of issue August something 41 now this is written with a quill pen um that's not ballpoint it could have been 1841 hard to say I guess the um policy does not cover loss or damage occasioned by War riots strikes or civil commotion well that's so cool so I don't know what do you guys think I'm thinking 1841 not 1941 look at how old this cases this might take a little uh investigating to find out when Austin balam at 14 King Street Reading was around and that'll give us an idea but uh based on the the penmanship and uh the fact it was only 3 lb tells me it might be a little bit older than what I think anyway that's really neat that it's got its paperwork and everything don't you think let me go and get a uh a tray so we can dump some of this stuff out and have a look see if we got anything good in here um when I bought it I was told this is pretty much uh costume jewelry which is fine but my experience is that whenever you're told it's costume jewelry a there could be some cool cost costume jewelry in there but also you might find yourself with at least a few gold pieces um and silver or who knows what else so time to get busy sorting as I prepare to dump this out I did end up looking up this address in this jewelry shop and found that um he took over the story around 1919 so this would likely be 1941 well that's okay it's still cool it's still neat I thought it might be a little bit older just because it looks older um but uh I was way off on the guesstimate there it doesn't have the modern look I guess maybe because it's English it doesn't have a modern look to it oh there's a little silver locket okay fortunately a lot of this stuff looks like it's Tangled so youve got your maybe cubic cubic sironia rosary beads all tangled up in here necklaces and bracelets so this might be a little bit of a to-do to get this sorted but um if I'm lucky that looks like it might actually be gold there might be a few good pieces there there's always a few good pieces mixed in with the jewelry y pirate pirate treasure anyway it's a neat little uh copper leaf brooch and pink beaded necklace that looks like a earring yep so I'm going to have to go through all this and try and find the uh the matches that looks like it's meant to be part of that set what do you guys think you think that went together and then um there might be oh look at this if there's Sherman or better that's actually nice that looks like it's um check crystal necklace see sometimes the um the costume jewelry if it's nice enough like that's a nice piece can be worth more than an actual gold or silver piece so it is worth digging through these jewelry boxes to see what you have that'd be nice if that was a real gold chain but it looks like it's got a uh uh I don't see any kind of Hallmark on there I have to get my Loop out just to double check but um yeah it's actually some decent costume jewelry in the mix here so we'll separate the broches we'll separate the earrings and we'll see if we can find some matching sets hopefully along the way if we're lucky we will that looks like a maybe a silver bracelet okay I'm driving myself crazy going through this stuff okay that's newer Pig pin TNT TriStar 600 Club oh there's another one these look like they're um anniversary pins for work like when you work at a company long enough to give you sort of like a 15 20 year anniversary or so forth H well this is going to be quite the mess to sort through but we bite it off one piece at a time there was an interesting piece or an interesting set I wanted to show you guys look at this it's an articulated fish and um it's actually made from real peacock feathers so they took the peacock feathers and they made this very ornate looking jewelry the fish actually moves you could use this as a why take it out fishing boys use it as a lure where are my earrings M down at the the lake they're in the dad's Tackle Box anyway um that this is where my mind goes I have issues um the uh I think that's just so cool they made it so the body actually looks like a fish's body and then you've got the um the bird is the brooch does not look like a comfortable way to hold your neck but um just a really neat little thing I wonder if that's bent or if it's meant to be like that it's no I guess it's meant to be like that so you've got a brooch and two fishies and it looks like there's a little silver cross in here too just a little one oh that I think makes it sway up to one of my favorite things I found out of here so far um some of the costume jewelry is really cool uh I don't know if those are going to be real Ruby might be that looks like it's gold with diamond uh flakes in there I'll have to get my diamond tester out and check that out but that might be that might be something oh there's a matching set of earrings so this will be the process just basically go through all this stuff and find find the matches and uh see what exactly is in here pendants lots of brooches well that's really ornate that's a filigree cross with a pearl in the Middle look at that I mean the uh the detail the the work that goes into those sorts of things some of these pieces I think are antique as well pharaohs that reminds me of um was it American Graffiti that gang was called the Pharaohs you want to join the Pharaohs you got to chain up a police car and then they did another pin again this TNT TriStar so it looks like kind of a mix of maybe a family and State Dr tiny watch out he's got a knife I have a knife that's for very tiny little bread and butter I guess must have been uh from a dollhouse set or something itsy bitsy little butter knife in here okay so some some interesting pieces some neat stuff I'll get this all sorted out and uh we do have this other box here as [Applause] well so little black and enameled box hand painted nothing nothing nothing uh and then it looks like just some uh those I don't think are real seed pearls or anything it's just uh this is truly like costume jewelry a couple Disney pins I guess I shouldn't discount too much because there is that looks like it's gold so maybe there's a gold necklace in the bottom of it all right well I guess it's worth sorting through all this stuff I can see like some of the it's just nothing too precious in this box I think the the good stuff was all in that other box and there's Keys maybe that's are these the keys for this box let's see nope or if it was it doesn't fit anymore that one looks a little smaller oh I think that yep that's the that's the key for this box okay well I have the key for uh the jewelry box anyway and maybe yeah that one doesn't have a key it had like a little lock on it all right now the work begins time to get busy sorting and see what I've got came out of this jewelry box well after after much sorting I've got a pile of um gold studded earrings some semi-precious I don't know what we're looking at there in terms of stones um checking the gold marks these are gold now that uh this that I thought might be rubies might be or don't know what it is maybe somebody at home has a better idea of what that color of stone is it's uh probably an antique piece because it's 9 karat um as are these other items they're nine karat in fact this little tiny locket and bracelet are 9 karat gold and that that uh lock it the lock actually opens and closes I think it's a functioning lock made out of gold which is cool um some antique sterling pieces so all together we've got a few pieces of gold we've got some more interesting or ornate brooches that's English C Brook China am I reading that right think so C Brook anyway um I think between this batch the 18 karat gold pocket watch and some of the other little Trinkets and stuff we should do okay um total paid for everything here today was $700 Canadian and and um I think on a good day an 18 karat gold pocket watch could be close to that so we should be able to make at least a few hundred off of everything we've got here so kind of exciting kind of good so we're going to get this stuff bagged up get it ready for an auction sale coming up uh we'll try and get into the June 1st sale that we're having at castner and uh gosh that was a lot of fun to sort through today a bit of work but also a bit of fun all right I got everything loaded up back in the box ready to go to the auction um yeah so I'll just keep I've been adding stuff to this sale I don't know we go out and find things and and sell it off this way since we closed the store down it's kind of how I sell stuff now anyway it was fun to go through found some interesting stuff um I'm going to see if I can get that pocket watch working before it goes in the sale but everything else uh is going to go so after the weekend we'll take that in I hope you enjoyed today's sifting sorting and searching video um I know I did it was always fun to go out and find new things as for me going to carry on with my day you guys have a wonderful day we'll see you all soon and as always bye for now

Channel: Curiosity Incorporated

Views: 48,284

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Id: QZOzn0wlWJU

Length: 24min 39sec (1479 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024