These sleuths of the jewelry world play an important role in the trade. Experts in the field share their experiences and wisdom.
Appraisers are the behind-the-scenes enforcers of responsible jewelry stewardship, from the intangible aspects like discretion and reputation, to the quantifiable ones like fair market value and retail replacement value assessments. These cool-headed sleuths of the jewelry world — and there are some 6,400 registered appraisers throughout the US — are respected for both their knowledge and their integrity. They work with efficiency, supporting their assessments with an arsenal of documentation, equipment, and often decades of experience. Accuracy is the coin of their realm.
Retailers, dealers, insurance companies, banks and private clients all rely on appraisers to sort out and offer advice on some of the thorniest and most personal issues surrounding fine jewelry. A new baby in the family, a second marriage, a large consignment for auction, a family disagreement over an important estate — all of these are good reasons to have appraisers on your speed dial. For their clients’ protection and privacy, they fly under the radar, but make no mistake: An appraiser is the best professional friend you could have.
Not only do appraisers have to follow the evidence without bias and be understanding — especially when delivering less-than-desirable news about a valuation — they must have impeccable credentials and references. The latter criteria are increasingly critical; those certifications from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) signal that an appraiser has attained a trifecta of knowledge, reliability and trustworthiness. That’s metaphorical gold in the competitive, often insular jewelry sector.
While training, experience and contacts are essential qualities in the best appraisers, a number of questions swirl about the industry. How do you know whom to trust? Should you use the in-house appraiser at your local jewelry store? Apart from the GIA’s activities, what is being done on the national level to regulate the trade and provide across-the-board standards? And of course, there’s the issue of lab-grown diamonds, a trendy bête noire that has become a significant concern for appraisers.
Here, appraisers from across the country weigh in on the strengths and challenges of their field and speculate on what the future may hold.
« It’s the wild west out there » Yosef Caldaron
Fine Jewelry Acquisition Initiative for the Winston Art Group, New York
Credentials: GG, AJP, GP, Gem-A, FGA, CMA
One of the many issues Yosef Caldaron can discuss with familiarity is the lack of regulation in the field. Given his numerous degrees, vast experience and solid reputation, his opinion carries weight. Aside from being director of the Fine Jewelry Acquisition Initiative for the Winston Art Group, he is also the only certified master appraiser (CMA) in New York.
It’s no surprise, then, that he thinks regulatory measures have fallen short in the US. “The appraisal world is not regulated nationally, but state by state,” he explains. “This means many people can say they’re an appraiser without having a certification, versus being USPAP-compliant. It’s kind of the wild, wild west — there’s very little regulation.”
That being the case, “it’s on the person seeking the appraisal to look at the qualifications of the appraiser,” he says. “I would only hire an appraiser with membership in an established appraisal society, which also means that person is doing continual education.”
Among his other bona fides is a deep knowledge of diamonds and the global gemstone market; he has worked for the GIA out of Israel as well. Caldaron has seen the diamond market change substantially because of synthetics. He is an advocate of using the Yehuda detector and believes that at minimum, it’s the appraiser’s job to screen for lab-grown. These stones, he says, have brought about “a major shift in the way we do appraisals.”
« Your gut is number one » Jennifer Leitman Bailey
Jennifer Leitman Bailey Ltd., New York
Credentials: GG, AJP, AAA, USPAP-compliant
Value for money, planning for the future, buying the best signed jewelry — these are just some of the core views that make Jennifer Leitman Bailey an appraiser’s appraiser.
“You have to follow the market, to really home in on the market when you’re appraising things,” she says. “Fair market value will always differ from retail replacement value, and the fair market is based on the market today.”
This no-nonsense approach means she sometimes has to deliver disappointing news. “It’s hard, and sometimes you also become a therapist for your client.”
In the Leitman Bailey universe, there’s also room for gut instinct. “I remember everything to a T,” she declares, “which is very important when you’re appraising. Your gut is number one.” However, she adds, “your gut intuition comes from the experience you’ve had. It’s not just made.”
Signed jewelry, often the benchmark for some of the finest collections, is another of her specialties because she is “trained to think resale.” She advises clients to collect signed pieces, as her market research demonstrates that they hold their value. “I always tell people that jewelry is a place to hold your money. Enjoy it, wear it, but [if] God forbid you need to sell it, natural diamonds, signed pieces, gem-set [pieces containing] colored stones with certifications [are where] you can’t go wrong.”
She also does a fair amount of self-purchasing, all of it signed. “I love my jewelry, but I’m always estate planning, so it’s for my children.” That’s the mark of an appraiser who takes her own advice.
« Reputation is everything » Daphne Lingon
Daphne Lingon LLC, Charleston, South Carolina
Credentials: GG, AAA, USPAP-compliant
Being an appraiser isn’t solely a path for the newly minted graduate gemologist or junior cataloguer anxious to fill in their résumé. Sometimes it’s for corporate leaders who have decided they’re ready for a change that can put their experience and contacts to use.
As Daphne Lingon has discovered, it is possible to pivot from the auction world to that of appraisals and advisories. Formerly head of jewelry for the Americas at Christie’s New York, she held one of the most visible positions in jewelry. After 30 years with the auction house, however, she decided to step away, move to the south, and become an independent quiet force behind the curtain as principal of Daphne Lingon LLC. The changes were neither as drastic nor as different as she had imagined. She still works with clients and looks at a lot of jewelry, though her client relationships have changed. So has the jewelry.
“You never know what you’re going to encounter with a client, and that’s what makes it exciting,” she says. She recalls a time she questioned why a large cubic zirconia ring was in among a client’s fine jewelry. She asked the client to look in her elderly mother’s travel jewelry, where it turned out her mother had inadvertently switched out the rings. “You’re talking about a $400,000 emerald-cut diamond ring versus one that has no value.”
Nowadays, the former camaraderie of being in an office comes from a network of like-minded appraisers across the country. In the wake of the heady years with Christie’s and overseeing major estates — among them Doris Duke’s, Elizabeth Taylor’s, and Anne Eisenhower’s — the intimacy of being an appraiser suits her.
“On the whole, appraisers are a community [of people who] support one another. Being on your own is very different than being part of a large department, and there are times when you need another opinion,” she says. “Or maybe someone reaches out because there’s a need for an appraiser in some other city. It’s collaborative.”
There is, however, one similarity to being with a large auction house: reputation. At the GIA, where Lingon trained in 1993, she was told that “your reputation is everything.” More than three decades later, the message continues to resonate: “It has been at the core of everything I do — at Christie’s and as an appraiser.”
« Climate change will bring insurance clients » Lea Koonce Ogundiran
Lea Koonce Ogundiran LLC, Chicago, Illinois
Credentials: GG, USPAP-compliant
What does the future hold for appraisers? Location is less binding in our post-pandemic world; great collectors aren’t only in major cities, and neither, for that matter, are appraisers.
“People are moving all over the country, so jewelry is moving, and you’re seeing jewelry you’d never expect in certain markets,” says Lea Koonce Ogundiran. “When I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, I was seeing goods from the Middle East because it’s near a military center. I saw a lot of glass-filled gemstones because soldiers were buying them in Afghanistan, thinking they were getting really nice stones.”
Koonce Ogundiran believes climate change will be another important factor, especially given the recent storms in the US. “You never know what’s going to happen — a forest fire, flooding. My prediction is that retail replacement value will become more important, and I think we’ll be doing more insurance appraisals.”
To meet this demand, the industry needs more appraisers, and for that, it needs to step up its career advancement. Recently the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers (NAJA) and software provider Instappraise began jointly offering scholarships for those going into the field. The GIA continues to bring in young, accredited jewelry professionals, though Koonce Ogundiran thinks it should be “more aggressive” in promoting appraisal as a career path. For instance, she says, “they don’t teach you how to price something” — an important skill for would-be appraisers.
« Product knowledge is key » Edward Lewand
Consultant Appraisal Services, New York
Credentials: GG, ASA, AAA
Street smarts, on-the-job training, and looking at a lot of jewelry over many decades has formed the foundation of Edward Lewand’s career. His parents were antique-jewelry dealers, and Lewand went to the GIA straight out of high school. From there, it was a job in New York’s diamond district on 47th Street, with college studies at night. Along the way, he met influential people in the field, including Antiques Roadshow alum Joyce Jonas, gemologist and appraisals authority Anna Miller, and leading certification pioneer Elly Rosen.
The result is that Lewand brings a highly practiced eye to the field, knows just about everyone, and is unequivocal about understanding fine jewelry.
“Product knowledge is key,” he says. To him, this means not just examining the front of a piece, but turning it over, checking it for wear, seeing how the stones were mounted, and distinguishing between, for instance, an Italian-made piece and a French one. “What is the actual value of an object? You have to answer it on evidence and comparables. You have to understand the history.”
For a man who was once a consultant to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), liability issues are paramount. Being careful and doing evaluations the right way are critical to avoiding any potential liability. At the end of the day, Lewand says, his role is “helping people find the truth about something.”
How do you qualify?
A quick guide to appraiser credentials.
GG: Graduate gemologist
ASA: American Society of Appraisers
AAA: Appraisers Association of America
AJP: Applied Jewelry Professional (GIA)
GP: Graduate Pearls
Gem-A: The Gemmological Association of Great Britain
FGA: Fellow of the Gemmological Association (Gem-A)
CMA: Certified master appraiser (NAJA)
USPAP: Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice
Photo : (clockwise from top left): Daphne Lingon, Jennifer Leitman Bailey, Edward Lewand, Lea Koonce Ogundiran and Yosef Caldaron.
Source : Rapaport
