GUEST: (laughs) I love Art Nouveau.

And when my daughter was born, my husband's grandmother gave me this pin.

APPRAISER: How old is she now?

GUEST: Oh, she's 24.

I've already promised her, when she gets married and has a child, that this will go to her.

APPRAISER: When this came to the table, I thought to myself, "Well, that's a heck of a piece of Art Nouveau jewelry."

European Art Nouveau jewelry.

And, specifically, it looks like French Art Nouveau jewelry.

We do have French marks on it.

You can see a little s, half-stroke eagle head on the top of the pin...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...along the pin stem.

And every separable part on this has a French eagle mark.

We'll find it on the C-clasp.

GUEST: Gotcha.

APPRAISER: That's the French mark for 18-karat gold.

And the artist has signed the piece in the counter enamel.

And his name is Lucien Hirtz.

GUEST: Hirtz.

APPRAISER: He's seminal in the use of enameling and decorations...

GUEST: Gotcha.

APPRAISER: ...in the world of French Art Nouveau jewelry.

GUEST: Gotcha.

APPRAISER: And French jewelry.

Hirtz is born in 1864.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And at the age of 21, he became a resident designer for Falize.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: Falize is one of the most important enamelists of French Art Nouveau jewelry.

We have portraits of women here and this floral-carved gold.

He was multitalented.

He could work in classical forms, he could work with insects, he can work in Japanism.

He was very well-respected in his time.

He won the gold medal...

GUEST: Ooh.

APPRAISER: ...at the Paris International Exhibition of 1900.

GUEST: Wow, that's amazing.

(laughs) APPRAISER: Big time.

He joined Boucheron in 1893, and he was given the job of doing some of their most important commission work.

He was the man.

GUEST: He was the cat's meow.

(laughing) APPRAISER: He was the cat's meow.

There is a maker mark on it...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...sort of half-struck.

It's in a diamond shape on the side of the brooch.

And I really can't make it out.

He did similar work for Falize and Boucheron.

GUEST: Gotcha.

APPRAISER: A brooch like this, by him, circa 1906 to around 1915...

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: ...in my opinion, is worth, at retail, $20,000 to $30,000.

GUEST: You're kidding.

APPRAISER: Not kidding.

However... (laughs): GUEST: That's crazy.

APPRAISER: However, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...has a larger example.

It's called La Gaité.

And this is a very close variation of that portrait in miniature.

It's stellar.

And this is a wearable portional miniature of that piece.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

Now that we know that, I would place a retail value on this piece of between $30,000 and $40,000.

GUEST: Wow.

(laughs) I was not expecting that.

I, I thought it would be, you know, maybe $1,000 or $2,000.

Wow.

(laughing) I'm so shocked.

That's amazing-- oh, wow.

(laughing) I'm sorry.

(both laugh) GUEST: That was not at all what I was expecting.

(laughing)