Kerfed AtlasSan Francisco

Estate jewelry, read from photographs

Photograph the box.
We read every mark in it.

Forty pieces on a kitchen table, no paperwork, three siblings, and a house that closes in nine days. We decode the marks, date each piece, and say plainly what a photograph cannot settle.

See what we write about one piece

Reading opens soon.
Nothing to sign up for.

Free
every mark in the box, read
$79
Piece Dossier, one piece
$249
Estate Dossier, up to fifteen
Forty pieces of jewelry laid out in a numbered grid on cream paper
Illustration. Forty pieces laid out the way we ask you to photograph them: the whole box first, then any stamps you can find.
IThe box on the table

Nobody in the room can tell 14k from plate.

A parent dies. There is a jewelry box on the kitchen table and no receipt for anything in it. Somebody has to divide it before the house sells. Every way of finding out what it is costs money, time, or credibility.

So the box sits in a closet for a year. Or it is sold in one lump, for a fraction of what it was worth.

A local buyer or a pawn shop

The person telling you what it is worth is the person buying it.

Free

A certified appraiser

The right answer for insurance and probate. Overkill for finding out which nine of the forty pieces matter.

$100–400 / hr

An online service, one item at a time

A box is not an item. The answer comes in two days, with nothing about what to do next.

From $25

A free phone app

A number in seconds, no marks shown, no evidence. That confidence is why nobody believes it.

Free

Asking strangers online

Kind people guessing.

Free

IIThe evidence ladder

We price only what we can prove, and we say what we cannot.

Every line we write carries the evidence behind it. That is the whole product. A photograph settles some questions completely, suggests others, and cannot answer the rest. Pretending otherwise is why nobody trusts the phone apps.

Proven

What the photograph shows. A 585 stamp. A Birmingham anchor. A maker’s punch we can name.

Indicated

What the photograph suggests. The era, the likely stone family, the way the piece was made.

Not provable from a photograph

Carat weight. A stone against its synthetic. Gold under plate. Here we name the test, who performs it, and what it should cost.

Close photograph of two stamps punched inside a ring band
Illustration. A band carrying two marks: the fineness stamp 375, and an anchor beside it. This is the shot we ask for, and the one most families never think to take.
IIIA catalog entry

This is what one piece looks like once it has been read.

PIECE 12Worth studying
A solitaire ring photographed straight down on cream paper

A specimen entry. No real customer’s box is shown on this page.

A woman’s solitaire ring, English, circa 1937

Marks read750anchordate letter n
Proven

The band carries 750 and a Birmingham anchor. Both are legible at magnification.

Indicated

18k gold, assayed in Birmingham. The claw setting and the shank profile read as circa 1937.

Not provable from a photograph

Whether the center stone is a diamond or a white sapphire, and what it weighs.

Comparable

One recent sold record sits here, always with its date and its venue.

Next step

Take the ring to a gemologist for a stone test. Ask for the result in writing. It should cost $60–90.

PIECE 27Costume

A filigree dress ring, 1980s

Marks readnone found
Indicated

Base metal under a plated finish. The wear along the shank shows a second color underneath.

Not provable from a photograph

Nothing here needs a lab. A magnet and a kitchen scale settle it in a minute.

Next step

None. This piece is costume, and we would not charge you to study it.

Nine pieces are costume. Three are worth studying properly.

That sentence closes the free reading. It is also why the paid work is believable: we name the pieces that are not worth paying us for.

IVThe Atlas

A page for every mark, written for the person holding the ring.

Under the Dossiers sits the Atlas: our own library of hallmarks, assay marks, makers, houses and eras. It carries recent sold records and the day’s metal prices. It is free to read, and it is what we read your box with.

Someone types “what does 585 mean on a ring” at eleven at night. They deserve the answer above the fold. Then one offer: photograph the whole box, and we read every mark in it.

Pages being written

  • 585
  • 750
  • 925
  • 9ct
  • 375
  • PLAT
  • Birmingham anchor
  • lion passant
  • leopard's head
  • duty mark
  • date letter
  • Tiffany & Co.

When a mark is not in the Atlas yet, we say so, and we catalogue it from your photograph.

VThe Dossiers

Estate Dossier

$249

What most families need

The whole box, up to fifteen pieces. It opens with the Executor’s Summary: keep, sell or verify for every piece, with the reason in one sentence each.

  • A catalog entry for every piece
  • Comparables with their date and venue
  • Named verify steps, with what each should cost
  • A page you can forward to your siblings and the attorney

Piece Dossier

$79

For the person holding one ring

One piece, studied fully: the marks we read, the era, the comparables, condition notes, and the next physical thing to do.

  • The full research write-up on one piece
  • Every claim on a rung of the evidence ladder
  • Add the rest of the box later for $170

The terms, in plain sentences

Delivered in minutes. Unlimited free revisions for 30 days. No refunds for dissatisfaction. Full refund if we fail to deliver.

Before anything is for sale

Reading the whole box is free, for any number of pieces. You see every mark we read, and the complete sample Estate Dossier, before you decide.

VIWhat we are not

We do not buy, and we do not sell.

The moment we made an offer on a piece, nothing else we wrote about it could be trusted.

We are not appraisers.

This is not an insurance or a probate appraisal. When one piece warrants that appointment, we are the thing that told you which one.

We do not guess.

An unmarked piece is reported as no mark, with the test that would settle it and what it should cost.

Kerfed Atlas

Photograph the box. We will read it, piece by piece.

Reading opens at kerfedatlas.nanocorp.app. There is no account, no email to leave, and nothing to sign up for on this page.

Read the catalog entry again

Free reading first. Always.