Interview with Céline David - Jewelry and gemology expert

Céline David is an expert in jewelry and gemology, specializing in the valuation and inventory of jewelry and precious stones. She assists both individuals and professionals in the valuation of inherited jewelry, whether it is an inheritance division, insurance or a sale. She also acts as an expert in legal proceedings. A doctor in History, Art History and Archeology, she regularly organizes, in France and internationally, courses and conferences devoted to the history of jewelry, from Antiquity to the present day. In addition, Céline is a jewelry expert and an auctioneer for auction houses.

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Could you please introduce yourself and explain what your profession consists of, or more generally your daily mission?

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My role is above all to advise people and to inform them about the quality of the jewelry they own. I help them understand if their pieces have real resale potential — that is, the possibility of generating interesting added value — or if, on the contrary, their value is too low, for example because they are damaged. In this case, I sometimes suggest that they melt them down to recover the money directly and move forward more quickly in their projects.

I work in several areas: I am a jewelry historian, a doctor specialized in this field and a professor of jewelry history in various countries. I am also a judicial expert for French-speaking courts in Belgium formed by ABEX, a member of the Belgian Royal Chamber of Experts. This allows me to carry out inventories for insurance companies, notaries or lawyers, especially in contexts of sharing or litigation. At the same time, I work for auction houses and platforms where I manage jewelry and precious stones expertise, also drawing on my training as an international gemologist. My aim is always to get the best possible results at auctions.

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But the starting point remains the same: the person who entrusts me with their jewelry. I do not work for partners who push me to make numbers; my mission is to defend the interests of those who trust me by asking me for expertise.

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“Inventory is by nature scalable, and using an Excel file is not the easiest thing”

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If you had to take only one item with you, what would it be? And why?

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Without hesitation, a spaghetti clip! It always surprises people, but it's the perfect tool for grasping what's otherwise impossible to catch. Think of spaghetti: al dente, slightly oiled, it's probably the slippery thing in the world. Well, with spaghetti tongs, you have a perfect grip.

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So yes, I am often told: “On a deserted island, it's useless! ” Maybe... but at least I'll get it. And for the rest, solutions are always found: imagination is enough. Tweezers, on the other hand, provide this small factor of prevention and ease that I find irreplaceable.

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How have you been managing your valuables and their documentation so far?

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I remember that, when I started my thesis thirty years ago, I used ClarisWorks on Mac. The application was very simple and allowed me to manage a database of more than 750,000 inventory records after death. With a keyword, I instantly found the corresponding sheet, for example inventory no. 2326 dated July 7. It was amazing! Then the software disappeared, and for fifteen years I found no equivalent solution: Excel, for example, did not allow you to directly link a photo to notes. This resulted in a real loss of consciousness.

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“A piece of jewellery is valued on a specific day, 'during the day'. Hence the importance of raising the date and updating it afterwards.”

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Is the value of an object financial or emotional? Do you have an example?

There are generally three main sources of value.

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Financial value. It is obvious, especially because jewelry is made of raw materials such as gold or silver, whose prices vary daily. Thus, when establishing an inventory and an estimate, this value is valid at a given moment, but it can change significantly over time. This is why it is important to have your jewelry re-evaluated regularly. Moreover, technological advances are directly influencing the market: for example, the recent ability to differentiate a classic pink sapphire from a “padparadscha” sapphire, which is worth fifteen times more per carat, immediately changes the value of a coin. The role of the expert is then to alert his customers to offer them a reassessment based on these new discoveries.

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emotional value; It is completely subjective and impossible to quantify. Jewelry may have little or no market value, but represent a great deal of emotional value for its owner. This is the reason why I sometimes refuse to send certain jewelry to the auction room: the price obtained will never reflect the emotional value that the object has for the person who owns it.

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Historical value. Finally, some jewelry has a heritage importance that greatly exceeds their material value. Take the example of a medieval ring apparently composed of a simple bone fragment: an analysis can reveal that it is in fact narwhal horn, assimilated in the Middle Ages to the “unicorn horn”. If no museum has one, this rarity gives the object exceptional historical value, which is then negotiated between specialists in the field.

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What advice would you give people when it comes to managing their assets, especially when it comes to managing their assets?

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The first step is to contact the chamber of experts in your country or region. The president will be able to refer to the most qualified person according to the request. Because there is “expert” and “expert”: real experts have diplomas, solid training, and the obligation to continuously train, to follow the evolution of market prices, to attend conferences, in short, to stay as close as possible to the reality on the ground. And these experts, when they are part of a chamber, they have the obligation to adhere to the Code of Conduct.

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On the other hand, some present themselves as experts without real competence, sometimes at the service of dubious interests. Their objective may be to convince that an object has little value and then buy it back at a low price. It is a practice to which attention must be paid.

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Finally, keep in mind that a serious expert does not buy objects directly. At most, he can take them as a commission for a private sale, but in this case the sales contract remains in the hands of the customer. The remuneration of the expert is then in the form of a commission agreed in advance.

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“You can imagine that a piece of jewelry that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor will be more valuable. That is the historical value.”  

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‍You tested Objectory, what do you think?

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It was the tool that was missing! Because he is intuitive and pliable : you understand what you know — a lot if you have been advised by an expert, or the minimum if you are an individual — and above all you can add high definition photos. Unlike a basic Excel file, the advantage of Objectory is that it can integrate photos directly. And that's a real challenge: the storage and the link between images and data are always a problem as soon as you want to build a coherent base. We can also share the sheet (with family, colleagues or a company) to circulate complete information with usable snapshots, not simple vignettes. Result: whether it is a brief or ultra-precise sheet, Everyone wins — notaries, lawyers, insurance companies — thanks to a exportation simple and clean data. In case of litigation, the tool can be used as structured evidence. Especially if it has been validated by an expert. We are not talking about opinions, but about a documented file encoding and evaluation.

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