Meet Adrian
Adrian Lewis is a decorated appraisal expert who has been a proud Houston resident since 1971. She first became enamored with jewelry on world travels with her grandmother, who had a penchant for jet-setting. They would travel together since she was a young woman and find unique and captivating jewelry pieces in all parts of the world to add to her home collection. In college, she studied geology and eventually went back for a Gemologist master’s degree, ISA certification, and became a Registered Master Valuer, giving her even more insight into the stones and jewelry pieces she and her grandmother had collected over the years. While she still loves to travel and collect, solving the mystery of a piece of jewelry is her favorite: “I’ve sold jewelry, I’ve made jewelry, but what I really love is appraisal and valuation. Every piece has a story.” She’s found stories in decades of appraising jewelry, from $50,000 diamonds to a necklace that hosted taxidermied raccoon vertebrae as one of the charming accents. Whatever the heirloom, Adrian is up to the task of valuation.
Professional and Fast
After making an appointment, our clients will be assigned a time to sit down with Adrian and start the appraisal process. The appointments are completely in-house and about thirty minutes long for one to three pieces, and if they bring eight or more, it might take her closer to an hour. While our clients wait, we have a premium lounge and refreshments bar for our clients to relax
Never Leaves the Store
Adrian has a personal rule: “I never take anything with me – that could be grandma’s ring!” Every one of our clients can be rest assured that their priceless heirlooms will never leave the store for a valuation period. It can be nerve-wracking to surrender something as precious as family jewelry. Some of the pieces that Adrian comes across as an appraisal expert are one-of-a-kind antiques, so we strictly keep all jewelry on-premises and get all the information Adrian needs for a proper valuation while our clients enjoy our store’s lounge.
Get the Right Claim
There’s a lot of paperwork that goes into an insurance claim, and valuers are a collector’s best friend when it comes to having the right insurance paperwork. While we hope our clients will never have to bust out their insurance claims, we know that when catastrophe strikes, we want our clients to have the most accurate information to get them through the claims process. Adrain’s approach is informed by years of working with insurance underwriting teams and can provide the most accurate valuation for an insurance payout. By taking into account the current market, the uniqueness of the piece, and the precious metals and gemstones within, Adrian can offer insurance companies all of the paperwork required for a smooth claim.
Know What You Have
“If I had one piece of advice for jewelry owners, it would be to start a spreadsheet for your collection.” Keeping track of a jewelry collection is paramount to knowing your collection’s worth. Adrian advises that jewelry owners create a spreadsheet that lists each piece and provide a picture, a description, how much it was sold for, how much it was appraised for, and why it was bought. This last bit of information might seem inconsequential, but having a story that goes with every piece is part of the joy of passing down jewelry. When a jewelry piece is rediscovered by the next generation, it can carry history along with it. Pass it along and keep the stories alive.