Interview with Céline Rose David – Jewellery and gemmology expert

Céline David is a jewellery and gemmology expert, specialising in the valuation and inventory of jewellery and precious stones. She supports both private individuals and professionals in appraising inherited jewellery — whether for an estate division, an insurance policy or a sale. She also acts as an expert witness in legal proceedings. With a doctorate in History, Art History and Archaeology, she regularly gives courses and lectures, in France and internationally, on the history of jewellery from Antiquity to the present day. Céline is also a jewellery expert and auctioneer for auction houses.

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Could you introduce yourself and explain what your profession involves, or more broadly your day-to-day mission?

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My role is, above all, to advise people and inform them about the quality of the jewellery they own. I help them understand whether their pieces have real resale potential — that is, the possibility of generating a worthwhile gain — or whether, on the contrary, their value is too low, for instance because they are damaged. In that case, I sometimes suggest melting them down to recover the money directly and move their projects forward more quickly.

I work across several areas: I am a jewellery historian, a doctor specialising in this field, and a professor of the history of jewellery in several countries. I am also a court-appointed expert for the French-speaking courts of Belgium, trained by ABEX and a member of the Belgian Royal Chamber of Experts. This allows me to carry out inventories for insurers, notaries or lawyers, particularly in the context of estate divisions or disputes. At the same time, I work for auction houses and platforms where I lead jewellery and precious-stone appraisals, drawing on my training as an international gemmologist. My aim is always to achieve the best possible results at auction.

But the starting point remains the same: the person who entrusts their jewellery to me. I don't work for partners who push me to hit numbers; my mission is to defend the interests of those who place their trust in me by asking for an appraisal.

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‍"An inventory is evolving by nature, and using an Excel file is not the easiest thing."

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If you had to take just one object with you, what would it be? And why?

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

So yes, people often say to me: "On a desert island, that's useless!" Maybe… but at least I'll have it. And for everything else, there are always solutions — imagination is enough. The tongs bring that little element of foresight and ease that I find irreplaceable.

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How have you managed 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 incredibly simple and let me manage a database of more than 750,000 post-mortem inventory records. With a keyword, I could instantly find the corresponding record — for example, inventory no. 2326 dated 7 July. It was extraordinary! Then the software disappeared, and for fifteen years I found no equivalent solution: Excel, for instance, didn't let you link a photo directly to notes. This led to a real loss of knowledge.

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‍"A piece of jewellery is valued on a specific day, at that day's 'rate'. Hence the importance of recording the date and updating it afterwards."

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Is an object's value financial or emotional? Do you have an example?

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There are generally three main sources of value.

Financial value. This one is obvious, especially because jewellery is made of raw materials such as gold or silver, whose prices vary daily. So when you draw up an inventory and a valuation, that value holds true at a given moment, but it can change significantly over time. That's why it's important to have your jewellery re-appraised regularly. Technological progress also has a direct impact on the market: the recent ability to distinguish a classic pink sapphire from a "padparadscha" sapphire, which is worth fifteen times more per carat, instantly changes the value of a piece. The expert's role is then to alert clients and offer them a re-valuation based on these new findings.

Emotional value. This one is entirely subjective and impossible to quantify. A piece of jewellery may have little or no market value, yet mean a great deal sentimentally to its owner. This is why I sometimes refuse to send certain pieces to auction: the price obtained would never reflect the emotional value the object holds for the person who owns it.

Historical value. Finally, some pieces have a heritage significance that far exceeds their material worth. Take the example of a medieval ring seemingly made of a simple bone fragment: analysis may reveal that it is in fact narwhal horn, associated in the Middle Ages with the "unicorn's horn". If no museum holds one, this rarity gives the object an exceptional historical value, then negotiated among specialists in the field.

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What advice would you give people in managing their estate, and in particular their objects?

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The first step is to contact the chamber of experts in your country or region. The president can point you to the most qualified person for your request. Because there is "expert" and "expert": real experts hold qualifications, have solid training, and are required to keep training continuously, to follow market price trends, to attend conferences — in short, to stay as close as possible to the reality on the ground. And these experts, when they belong to a chamber, are obliged to adhere to its Code of Conduct.

Conversely, some present themselves as experts without any real competence, sometimes serving dubious interests. Their aim may be to convince you that an object is worth little, only to buy it back at a knock-down price. It's a practice to watch out for.

Finally, bear in mind that a serious expert does not buy objects directly. At most, they may take them on commission for a private-treaty sale, but in that case the sales contract remains in the client's hands. The expert is then paid through a commission agreed in advance.

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‍"You can well imagine that a piece of jewellery that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor will be worth more. That's what historical value is."

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You tested Objectory — what do you think?

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It's the tool that was missing! Because it's intuitive and flexible: you enter what you know — a lot if you've been advised by an expert, or the bare minimum if you're a private individual — and above all you can add high-resolution photos. Unlike a basic Excel file, Objectory's advantage is being able to integrate photos directly. And that's a real challenge: storing images and linking them to data is always a problem as soon as you want to build a coherent database. You can also share the record (with family, colleagues or a company) to pass on complete information with usable images, not mere thumbnails. The result: whether it's a brief or an extremely detailed record, everyone benefits — notaries, lawyers, insurers — thanks to a simple, clean export of the data. In the event of a dispute, the tool can serve as structured evidence, especially if it has been validated by an expert. We're not talking about opinions, but about a documented file of records and valuations.

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