A jewelry appraisal provides a detailed assessment of your piece’s value, which is essential for insurance coverage, estate planning, resale, or legal purposes. Without an appraisal, you may be underinsured or unable to prove ownership value in case of loss or damage. Our gemological laboratory and jewelry appraisal business offers expert evaluations, ensuring accurate, professional documentation tailored to your needs.

The type of appraisal you need depends on your purpose—insurance appraisals determine replacement value, while fair market value appraisals are used for resale, estate planning, or tax purposes. If you're donating jewelry, a charitable donation appraisal ensures IRS compliance. If you're unsure which appraisal is right for you, our lab will walk you through the process and explain the different types. MGL provides expert evaluations customized for your specific requirements, ensuring accuracy and credibility.

While you may have an idea of your jewelry’s value, a professional appraisal is necessary for an accurate, unbiased assessment. Our gemological laboratory evaluates factors like gemstone quality, metal content, condition, and market trends to determine a precise valuation. This ensures credibility for insurance, resale, or estate purposes.

The value of your jewelry depends on factors like gemstone quality, metal content, condition, and current market trends. Our gemological laboratory provides expert appraisals to give you an accurate, unbiased assessment based on these criteria. Whether you need an appraisal for insurance, resale, or estate planning, we ensure a professional valuation tailored to your specific needs. If you're unsure which type of appraisal is right for you, our team will guide you through the process.

Yes, MGL offers a brokering service to help you sell your jewelry with confidence. We provide expert evaluations to determine fair market value and connect you with the right buyers, whether through private sales, auctions, or reputable dealers. Our team ensures a secure and transparent process, maximizing your return while handling the details for you. If you're unsure about selling, we can guide you through your options and help you make an informed decision.

Yes, our advanced gemological laboratory offers a concierge service for your convenience. We can travel to your home, office, or bank vault to provide on-site appraisals and consultations in a secure and private setting. This service ensures a seamless and stress-free experience while maintaining the highest level of professionalism and discretion. Whether you need an appraisal, brokerage assistance, or expert guidance, we bring our services directly to you.

When inheriting a large amount of jewelry that you are unsure of the value, materials, or origin, we suggest our Jewelry Triage service before performing any of our other services. With this service, we will assess all pieces with you and suggest the next steps to take in the appraisal and identification process. Our experts will help distinguish fine jewelry from costume pieces, identify genuine gemstones and precious metals, and determine which items may warrant further appraisal. If needed, we also offer gem identification services and advanced testing to provide deeper insights into your jewelry’s composition and quality.

Our laboratory appraises a wide range of jewelry, including antique, vintage, designer, and contemporary pieces, as well as loose diamonds and colored gemstones. We also evaluate estate collections and inherited jewelry through our Jewelry Triage service to determine which items may warrant further appraisal. In addition to fine jewelry and gemstones, we also provide watch appraisals, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of your timepieces. Our expert assessments follow industry standards, giving you confidence in the accuracy and credibility of your appraisal.

We do not provide watch authentication services, such as verifying brand authenticity, internal movement originality, or factory specifications. However, through our professional relationships with select watch companies and major museum institutions that maintain historical archives, we are able to access and liaise with these resources for verification upon request, available for an additional fee.

Yes. Our laboratory appraises fine jewelry across all categories, including pieces from renowned design houses, antique and period jewelry, unsigned works, and contemporary creations. Our assessments include detailed testing, hallmark analysis, and stylistic evaluation to provide an accurate valuation supported by industry standards.

While we do not provide direct brand authentication services, we maintain professional relationships with select jewelry maisons and major museum institutions around the world that preserve historical archives. Through these connections, we are able to liaise with archival departments to verify provenance or maker attribution upon request, available for an additional fee.

While a jewelry store appraisal may provide some information, it is often not as detailed, unbiased, or compliant with professional appraisal standards such as USPAP (Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice) and ASA (American Society of Appraisers) guidelines. Many store appraisals use retail or inflated pricing, which may not reflect the true replacement or fair market value of your piece. Relying on such an appraisal can lead to issues such as overpayment on insurance premiums, difficulty in resale due to unrealistic valuations, and discrepancies in estate or legal matters where an accurate, independent assessment is required. Our laboratory provides objective, third-party appraisals that meet industry standards, ensuring accuracy for insurance, estate, or resale purposes. An independent appraisal gives you confidence that your jewelry’s value is properly assessed without potential conflicts of interest.

Determining the age of jewelry draws on years of archival research and study of historical design, combined with advanced testing in our laboratory. Many clients come to us with family stories, such as “This brooch belonged to my great-grandmother who immigrated from Europe”, and want to know not just its value but its true history.

We start by examining stylistic and construction details: the way clasps, settings, and solder were executed; the type of engraving, enameling, or stone cuts used; and the wear patterns that develop over time. These observations often provide era-specific clues, for example the transition from Old Mine to Old European cut diamonds around 1900, or the introduction of platinum and geometric motifs during the Art Deco period.

To confirm these findings, we use advanced testing such as XRF to identify alloys, UV-Vis or FTIR to evaluate gemstone treatments, and high-resolution imaging to document workmanship and hallmarks. Together, this combination of historical expertise and laboratory analysis allows us to place a jewel within its proper period and determine whether it matches family lore or was acquired later.

Our goal is always to respect the sentimental story while grounding the appraisal in verifiable evidence, giving you confidence in both the provenance and the value of your jewelry.

We use advanced testing because classical gemology alone is often insufficient for detecting modern treatments, synthetic origins, and subtle compositional differences in gemstones. While traditional tools like microscopes, refractometers, and UV lamps are essential to a gemologist’s professional toolkit, they cannot always identify high-quality lab-grown diamonds, advanced treatments, or trace element variations that impact a gemstone’s classification and value. These fundamental techniques serve as the first step in evaluation, but more advanced methods are needed for definitive identification.

Our laboratory utilizes DiamondView for UV excitation analysis to reveal growth structures and fluorescence patterns unique to natural and synthetic diamonds. We employ photoluminescence spectroscopy to detect subtle optical features indicating formation environment and treatments. FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) identifies treatments like resin fillings and heat alterations, while XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) analyzes elemental composition to distinguish natural, synthetic, and treated materials.

These advanced techniques provide a level of accuracy and insight that classical gemology alone cannot achieve. By integrating these methods, our laboratory ensures precise identification, treatment detection, and comprehensive gemstone analysis, giving our clients the highest level of confidence in their jewelry’s classification and value.

Yes, our advanced testing services provide precise identification of natural versus lab-grown diamonds. We utilize DiamondView, which employs UV excitation to analyze growth structures and fluorescence patterns unique to each type of diamond. Additionally, we use photoluminescence spectroscopy and other advanced analytical techniques to confirm a diamond’s origin with accuracy. These methods detect even the most sophisticated lab-grown diamonds, ensuring a thorough and reliable evaluation. Our expert analysis provides definitive classification, giving you confidence in your diamond’s identity.

Our laboratory adheres to strict confidentiality standards in accordance with ASA (American Society of Appraisers) guidelines, USPAP (Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice) compliance, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which protects client information. We maintain secure records and do not share appraisal details without explicit client consent. Our professional ethics ensure that all assessments remain private, giving you complete confidence in the security of your personal and financial information.