ANTIQUE18K WH GOLD DIAMOND PAVE BIRD/BRANCH BROOCH/PIN Important ESTATE FILLED w 60+ Diamonds &Ruby&Sapphires Start Price USD 2,999.00 Current Price USD 2,999.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Friday, August 15, 2008 End Time Monday, August 25, 2008 Location Crystal River, Florida See more about 'ANTIQUE18K WH GOLD DIAMOND PAVE BIRD/BRANCH BROOCH/PIN' Description                 ANTIQUE18K WHITE GOLD DIAMOND BIRD & BRANCH BROOCH/ PIN Description ANTIQUE 18K WHITE GOLD DIAMOND RUBY SAPPHIRE BIRD on BRANCH PIN Diamond Brooch w Sapphire Accents & Ruby Eyes - FINEST QUALITY – RARE!    This 18K Gold Diamond Covered Antique Bird on a Branch is SPECTACULAR, STUNNING and probably a one of a kind piece. The diamond count on it is at LEAST 60 round fully cut prong set genuine diamonds!  This is being brought straight from a prominent estate to you today! As you can see it is nearly COVERED in Diamonds.  The only jewelery houses I know that made diamond bird brooches such as this one are Cartier, Tiffany,  Van Cleef & Arpels and Sterle, Paris.   This piece is unsigned (or at least I have YET to find a signature or makers mark) so it is hard to determine who might have made it.  It simply has to have been made by someone of their caliber.   Perhaps someone is familiar with the artist and will email me with the house that made this UNBELIEVABLY INCREDIBLE brooch.  There just weren't enough of them made to do an internet search and find one that is comparable.   If you are familiar with bird brooches of this sort, or even if you are not, a simple search on the Internet will bring you similar items of this superior quality from the houses named above selling from $25,000 to $50,000 and up.   These diamond and gemstone brooches are hard to find and this is prettier than anything I could find on the Internet including a diamond bird brooch (ours is prettier) sold by a famous NY Auction House for a HUGE price tag.  This superior quality and artistry is only found on pins are worn by celebrities, royalty and the very wealthy.  Now is the chance for you to own your own or to impress your sweetheart with the gift of a lifetime!  (She will thank you FOREVER!) Do a comparison and you will see that we are starting the auction at an unbelievably low starting bid. We like the spirit of a real auction where you start low and the bidders determine the value and the highest bidder wins.  I believe the piece to be one of a kind. The bird is covered with over 60 guaranteed genuine diamonds as you can see in the photos. The frame of the bird brooch or setting is 18K white gold which is marked 18K and is also acid tested and guaranteed at 18K. The beak and feet are 18K yellow gold. The eye is a ruby and the blue stones on the branch and in the flower are believed to be  sapphires. This beautiful bird has a Natural Pearl  (Perhaps "Mabe" Pearl? -- or another type of similar genuine or natural pearl for its body – see photos since we are NOT pearl experts and do not know which type this very large pearl is!  The trombone or tube clasp closure dates the piece between 1890 to 1940 and leads us to believe it would be European.   The size of the bird is approximately 3 ¼ inches measuring from the tip of the flower to the tip of its tail and the branch it sits on is approximately 2 1/8 inches. I cannot begin to put its beauty into words and for that reason I provide you 24 photos. I try to cover every angle when photographing but if there is a particular view you need prior to bidding, please email me and ask. I’ll be glad to email you a specific request for another view. This beauty weighs approx 17.6 grams of 18K gold.  Again, PLEASE use the photos as your description and ask questions.  I am not an expert, but I am great at researching and this is a TERRIFIC piece.  My words could not begin to convey its beauty to you.   It is GLISTENS and GLIMMERS so much that I actually had a very hard time getting good photos.  The GLARE will blind you!  After taking around 500 photos, I settled on the best 24 and I feel they should show you every angle and aspect.  However, if I have failed to provide a view you need to see, please email me.  I will be out of town till Sunday the 17th but then I will send you any special requests.  All photos click to enlarge. I have spent hours searching the back of the brooch for a signature or makers mark from one of the famous jewelry houses named above because it certainly looks like you would find a Cartier mark on the back.  I could not find any mark indicating the maker.  I can only find an 18K mark, so I am at a loss as to which of the renowned houses or which jeweler / artist would have made it.    This  came from the estate of a millionaire who retired to Florida and was originally from NY. The wife's first husband was a Count from a foreign country  The 2nd husband was famous in his own right and it is his estate we purchased this from.  The wife had been deceased for some time. Please don't ask their identity - we respect the privacy of all our clients.   We bought several pieces of jewelry that were not willed to family members and they will be on ebay this week for your bidding pleasure - so be sure to see our other auctions as well! Please remember when we describe something that we are not jewelers or gemologists -- we are estate liquidators who come across some fabulous one-of-a-kind items directly from some fabulous estates – right to you.   We deal with high quality items and prestigious clients and have been bringing the best to you on ebay and in our auction gallery for years. We have over 6000 positive feedbacks, so you can bid with confidence. But when it comes to describing a particular type of pearl or something, I prefer you look at the photos and use the photos to describe as opposed to my written attempt to convey the information about the piece.   My knowledge and tools at hand are limited.  The gold has been acid tested and guaranteed to be 18k and we used a high quality diamond tester on the diamonds and they are tested and GUARANTEED to be GENUINE.  We do not have a refractor to test the other stones (ruby and sapphires) and we are not licensed or qualified to give cut, clarity or color of a diamond.  We prefer you look at our MANY photos and let them be the description of an item. On an item of this quality, we post 24 photos, which is the maximum. I try to take every angle and give close up and MAGNIFIED shots so you can see every tiny detail. We may not be jewelers, but then again a jeweler would be asking $15,000 to $25,000 or MORE for this piece -- I have seen them in the $50,000 range!  (If you are not familiar with these, then do your own research and you will see how much they sell for).   BUT we are going to let the auction bidders decide the value in true auction format. We are starting with a very low bid and there is NO RESERVE!  The highest bidder will win.  We are POWER SELLERS on eBay since the late 90s and have excellent feedback – SO YOU CAN BID WITH CONFIDENCE!   SHIP AS MANY ITEMS AS YOU WISH FOR JUST ONE SHIPPING FEE! (including any items that end within one week from the close of this auction) NO EXTRA SHIPPING FOR ADDITIONAL ITEMS WON! (ADDITIONAL INSURANCE MAY BE REQUIRED, BUT NO EXTRA SHIPPING!) SO SEE *ALL* OUR AUCTIONS Please wait for your invoice from ME or calculate according to the fees under SHIPPING in this description. Often eBay shows the wrong initial price of shipping (for this one, it is 8.50 which includes the first $100 of insurance as well) Ebay is NOT adding on the insurance when they send end of auction notices, and insurance is MANDATORY. Our entire shipping policy including info about shipping additional items at no cost (except insurance) is also in the SHIPPING paragraph below. Thank you WE HAVE MANY OTHER TERRIFIC TREASURES -- ALL WITH NO RESERVES....SO....PLEASE...See Our Other Auctions For Many More Treasures From This Same Estate And A Few Other Estates. We Gladly Combine Shipping (See Below). We Provide Up To 24 Photos For Each Item. Since The Condition Of Antiques Is A Very Subjective Subject, And Most Of Our Items Are Between 50 And 100 Years Old, We Expect Bidders To Use The Photos As The Primary Item Description. Any Other Descriptions Are Provided As A Courtesy And They Are Our **Opinions** Only! Please Check Our Feedback. We Are Honest And Reputable Sellers With Excellent Feedbacks, But Paypal Is Getting More And More Bold In Taking Sellers Money Away From Them So We Must Make It Very Clear That Our Photos Are As Much A Part Of Our Description As Our Words! If It Were Not For Paypal Being So Unreasonable And Biased, It Would Not Even Be Necessary To Say This. Perhaps Someone Better Than Paypal Will Come Around? Be Sure To See Our Shipping Under The Shipping Category In Our Written Description - Just Below The "Payment" Category. Ebay's Shipping Section At The Bottom Of The Page Is Often Incorrect Due To A Technical Problem We Are Having!We have other items on eBay this week, so see below about free shipping for additional items. Payment PAYMENT OPTIONS: Credit cards through Paypal US money order Personal Check in very unique circumstances. Email for approval first. There MUST BE A GOOD REASON you can't get a money order, and your check will be held till cleared. International bidders must send payment in U.S. FUNDS ONLY - Paypal,  or a Postal Money Order. YOU MUST SEND PAYMENT WITHIN 3 BUSINESS DAYS Shipping SHIPPING RATES & POLICY: WE SHIP MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY USUALLY WITHIN 24 HOURS OF WHEN YOUR PAYMENT IS RECEIVED. NO SHIPPING ON FRIDAY OR SATURDAY. WE CANNOT SHIP ON FRIDAY OR SATURDAY. READ OUR FEEDBACK, MOST OF OUR BUYERS ARE SURPRISED AT JUST HOW QUICKLY THEIR ITEM ARRIVES! U.S. SHIPPING FEES TO ANY U.S. ZIP CODE:   For a FULLY INSURED PRIORITY MAIL up to a 2 pound package. NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR EXTRA ITEMS. Please keep in mind Postal Rates have gone up! 8.50 up to $99 in Final Value 9.60 for $100 to $199 10.70 for $200-$299 and so on... Add $1.10 for each additional $100 over $300 NO EXTRA FEES FOR ADDITIONAL ITEMS SHIPPED AT THE SAME TIME - YOU MAY HAVE TO PAY FOR EXTRA INSURANCE OR EXTRA WEIGHT BUT THERE ARE NO EXTRA CHARGES FOR EXTRA ITEMS. You will NOT get a notice that the item has shipped, We don't have enough staff to send emails when we ship, but we ship so quickly that by the time most sellers are sending an email that the item has shipped, our bidders have received their items. Rates are for USPS PRIORITY MAIL, FULLY INSURED with PROOF OF DELIVERY We can NOT ship with other carriers, only the US Post Office - We are in a Rural Area and our options are limited. We will NOT ship without Insurance & we DO require a SIGNATURE to show package was received - If you are not home, the mail carrier will leave a postcard telling you your package is at the post office. DUE TO THE NEW POLICIES OF EBAY AND PAYPAL WE *MUST* GET A SIGNATURE!  It is their position that if a seller cannot produce a signature that the package was received, then it was NOT mailed!  This is the only way we can protect ourselves, and YES, it does raise the shipping, but we cannot afford to have ebay or paypal rule against us because we did not get a signature. WE DO NOT VARY FROM OUR SHIPPING POLICIES...PLEASE DO NOT ASK! INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING RATES & POLICY: $25.00 USD up to $99 in Final Value Add $1.50 for each additional $100 Rates are for First Class Airmail Parcel Post WITH Insurance We will NOT ship Global Priority due to past experience with packages lost or stolen in Europe & Australia WE SHIP MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY USUALLY WITHIN 24 HOURS OF WHEN YOUR PAYMENT IS RECEIVED. NO SHIPPING ON FRIDAY OR SATURDAY. You will NOT get a notice that the item has shipped, it will be received rapidly. We actually DISCOURAGE International bidding, because the fees are so high, especially because we MUST FULLY INSURE EACH ITEM.  See US shipping to find out WHY we must insure EVERYTHING.  However, you can factor the shipping cost into the amount you wish to bid. The reason we try to discourage international bidding is because some people try to blame us for the high postal rates that are out of our control.  It is much less expensive to ship without insurance, but to protect ourselves and the buyers, we will NOT ship anything without insurance! PLEASE DON'T TELL US HOW "OTHER PEOPLE" DO IT.  MAYBE THEY HAVE NOT TAKEN A LOSS YET FROM EBAY OR PAYPAL BECAUSE THEY DID NOT HAVE PROOF OF INSURANCE! WE DO NOT LIE TO CUSTOMS ABOUT PRICE PAID! If you are not willing to pay the shipping, PLEASE DO NOT BID! We know other sellers ship for less, but they do NOT purchase Insurance, and that is against our policy. We do NOT make money on shipping! You will see that when you get your package. Whether or not you wish to bid, after considering the high cost of Insurance, is totally up to you. DISCOUNTS ON SHIPPING MULTIPLE ITEMS: Great news! You can ship as many items as you like and shipping fees will only increase according to weight and insured value, no additional charge for extra items shipped together! OTHER IMPORTANT INFO: Shipping fees, Insurance Fees and the Manner of Shipping are NOT negotiable. Would you order from Sears or an Infomercial and then tell THEM how to ship your item? Of course not. Our policies are written in stone, and by placing a bid you agree to abide by them. Overnight delivery is available at extra cost, so if you need it quickly, just ask. Our shipping is done very Professionally and you do get what you pay for. We use quality packing materials including bubble wrap, peanuts, etc, which we pay a LOT for, and we hire professionals to handle our packing and shipping. We insist on insurance. If you do not accept our terms of shipping please do not bid. DAMAGED, LOST OR STOLEN IN SHIPPING: In the unlikely event the postal service damages your item we will send you a signed claim form indicating the refund goes to you and the receiver of the item must take the damaged item IN ITS ORIGINAL PACKING to THEIR Post office. They will give you a claim form.  You fill out part of it and send it to us, and we will fill out the rest.  Your refund will come from the Post Office and not from us. If you feel an item is lost in transit please contact me AND ask your local post office if they have an insured package for you. 99 Percent of the time bidders who tell us they have not received their package, find it at their Local Post Office. Please do not contact Ebay or Paypal but contact ME. We have the tracking info and are the only ones who can help you. We have only had ONE item that is truly LOST in FIVE years. It can be tracked as far as arrival in English Customs and it disappeared soon after. Since every item is insured you must SIGN for your package.  If you are not home the postman will leave a card asking you to pick it up at the post office. Sometimes these little postcards get lost or misplaced so if you are looking for a package, call your post office and see if they left you a postcard for pick up.  Terms of Sale REFUNDS: OUR EBAY AUCTIONS ARE TREATED JUST LIKE REAL AUCTIONS - ITEMS ARE SOLD AS IS AND WHERE IS - WITH NO REFUNDS. READ ON FOR A LENGTHY DIATRIBE TO SEE WHY WE HAVE HAD TO GO TO THIS POLICY. JUST LOOK AT OUR FEEDBACK OF OVER 99 PERCENT FOR OVER 5000 TRANSACTIONS, AND YOU CAN SEE THAT WE ARE STRAIGHTFORWARD, HONEST SELLERS.   THERE ARE UNFORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT HAVE FORCED US TO GO TO THIS POLICY.  ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, WE PROVIDE AS MANY AS 20 OR EVEN MORE PHOTOS AND A DETAILED DESCRIPTION AND WE ARE HAPPY TO ANSWER QUESTIONS OR SEND ANY EXTRA PHOTOS YOU REQUEST.  WE WANT YOU TO HAVE A VERY ACCURATE DEPICTION OF THE ITEMS YOU ARE BIDDING ON. WE ARE NOT EXPERTS ON MANY OF THE ITEMS WE SELL, BUT A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.  HERE IS THE LENGTHY EXPLANATION -- Our policy used to be that if we made an huge error, we would issue a refund. Over the past 7 years we actually never made a HUGE error, we did however, refund for missing the fact that the clasp on a cameo wasn't working properly (now we check all the clasps) or maybe I missed a measurement by a half inch, but never anything serious. We always take the stand that the customer is always right, but you wouldn't believe some of the fraudulant bidders we have caught in the act.  There are not many of them, but the ones that are out there really know how to work the system.  Then there are people new to ebay who don't have a clue.  Some of them have caused us a bunch of grief.  Any time we have had a problem with a buyer, they have had little or no feedback. The seasoned buyers have ALWAYS been happy with our products and this can be verified by our feedback as well.  THINGS HAVE CHANGED HOWEVER, with Paypal's new policy of taking money out of the seller's bank account the second someone has buyer's remorse or makes a false claim, and taking up to a month to decide if we did anything wrong, we have had to go to a NO REFUND policy.  We got stung by a buyer who has ripped off FOUR SELLERS by saying he got something that was not accurately described.  All four of us had our money taken by Paypal AND we do not have the items. Paypal didn't even see to it that this scammer returned the items.  He is the winner, he has the items AND his money back.  In our case, we even happened to have  had an appraisal for the particular item and it didn't mean a thing to paypal.  They are very biased towards buyers not sellers.  Its a shame how one bad apple (scam artist buyers) spoils everything for the whole bunch. We ended up with 2 choices, offer No Refunds at all, or quit taking Paypal.   Unfortunately Paypal has a monopoly on the on-line credit card market for ebay, so we can't afford to nix them.  And if you take Paypal they are the judge and jury as to whether or not the buyer gets their money back and they convict the seller prior to the trial by taking money from your account while their uneducated staff make decisions about condition of something they have no knowledge of.  They also tend to always rule in the favor of the buyer no matter what the circumstances.  Condition of antiques and collectibles is a very subjective matter.  My opinion may differ from yours and collectors know much more about an item than we do. That is why it is up to YOU to be the expert!  We are not perfect (no one is) but this is an *auction* and not a retail store.  If you want specific photos, I will send them to you.  If you can come to our place and see the item in person, you are welcome.  With all the photos, and all the details you should know exactly what you are bidding on.  We start all our auctions with no reserve at 9.99 so it is up to the bidder to determine condition, etc, based on our written description, our photos, and by taking advantage of the opportunity to email and ask us questions or for additional photos.  Please review our feedback and you can still bid with confidence. DAMAGED, LOST OR STOLEN DURING SHIPPING: In the unlikely event the postal service damages your item KEEP THE ITEM AND THE BOX AND PACKING MATERIALS IT CAME IN.  YOU WILL NEED TO TAKE IT ALL TO THE POST OFFICE FOR THEM TO EXAMINE.  Contact us using the Ebay My Messages method, and we will send you a signed claim form indicating that the refund goes to you and when you receive it, you fill out your portion and take the claim form and the item with its packaging to your nearest Post office.  Your refund will come from the Post Office and not from us. If you feel an item is lost in transit please contact me and PLEASE ALSO ASK YOUR LOCAL POST OFFICE IF THEY HAVE A PACKAGE FOR YOU!   99.9 Percent of the time bidders tell us they have not received their package, they find it at their Local Post Office.Please do not contact Ebay or Paypal but contact ME. We have the tracking info and are the only ones who can help you. We have only had ONE item that is truly LOST in FIVE years. We traced it and found out It arrived in English Customs and disappeared soon after. Since every item is insured you must SIGN for your package.  If you are not home the postman will leave a card asking you to pick it up at the post office. Sometimes these little postcards get lost or misplaced. About Us YOU CAN BID WITH CONFIDENCE, WE ARE  Contact Us EMAIL:  PLEASE USE THE EBAY MESSAGES SYSTEM to communicate with us or your email may get lost in with the hundreds of other emails or blocked by our spam blocker!  We usually answer email in eBay's My Messages Monday - Friday but there is no guarantee we can answer on the weekends. Monday - Friday we answer within 24 hours                 Place a Bid!