Ben Marks and the crew at The Collectors Weekly, immersed themselves in an Antiques Roadshow taping last month in San Jose, California, and documented their experience. Ben brought a Pogo animation cel for appraisal and his colleague Jessica Lewis had a Elks Club fob from the early part of last century. From Collectors Weekly:
"An Inside Look at Antiques Roadshow: A Collectors Weekly Special Report"Inside the set, the energy is exhilarating. The appraisers are laughing, fiercely examining items, calling out to one another: “Hey, you gotta take a look at this!” The excitement is contagious and we quickly become wrapped up in the psychology of television, people with dreams, and family secrets being revealed.
(KQED volunteer Lyn) Johnson leads us to Jewelry to see what we can learn about the Elks piece. As we wait, an appraiser named Barry Weber is talking to a colleague about a guest’s item. The conversation is mostly about what the guest may already know about the item, and whether they should pitch it to go on camera.
At the Jewelry table, Adam Patrick of A La Vielle Russie, Inc. examines an Elks fob from the early 20th century. The piece is made of 14k yellow gold, includes a diamond and a sapphire, and holds an elk's tooth. It was appraised at $750 to $800.
As Bemko told us the day before, the show’s dual goals include informing a guest about his or her item, as well as documenting the guest during what she called a “vulnerable” moment. If the guest knows too much, it doesn’t make for great TV. Weber knows this, and they want to be sure not to waste anyone’s time with a pitch that might get shot down.
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ah yes, the infamous pregnant pause when they announce what it's worth... with some people, you can see the cash symbols in their eyes... a lot of them come on this show just to get a confirmation that what they got at a yard sale really is what they thought it was... and that they've successfully gipped the original owner out of a fortune...
I miss the days when the show would regularly feature appraisers telling crestfallen owners that their family heirlooms were actually worthless fakes.
I'd like to see a follow-up show where they see if the owners of the appraised items can get anywhere close to the estimates given on the show.
In the UK they have done follow-up shows seeing what happened to some big items - paintings found on a fly-tip, a load of silver brought by a family whose dead husband/father had collected it over the years and kept it under his bed and so on, and how much they sold for. Often they sell for more than predicted. One discovery was a long-lost Mad Dadd (he stabbed his dad) watercolour which sold to the British Museum for £100,000
Every now and then AR do a piece to camera which is all about what the bringer already knows about the material. Sometimes this is a specialised collector (last week some chap with a ring of Elvis's and stuff from Marilyn Monroe and a fancy cigarette case from Bogart to his first wife [or vv, I forget] and so on), sometimes a family with the war memorabilia of a relative. In some of those cases they don't bother with the £ value of the items as the item is as much about the joy of collecting stuff or the historical importance of holding on to old documents and family photos.
AR is one of the few shows where the US copy is better than the UK original. Most of the recent seasons I've seen from the UK focus much too heavily on the sensational value of items, I prefer the more laid back PBS approach.
Lyn Johnson is a 20-year volunteer for KTEH, the PBS affiliate for San Jose. It's kind of disturbing how KQED has almost completely erased the local culture of San Jose's channel.
I like the Dutch show Tussen Kunst en Kitsch (Between Art and Kitsch), because they sometimes tell the owners of an object that it's fake, and how to tell.
Brainspore: i haven't watched AR in years. you mean they don't pull people on camera to tell them how worthless their stuff is anymore? that was one of the best parts.
My mom was on last year, with the ol' Buddy L sand and gravel truck, which occupies a place of honor on our mantle at the Rocket Homestead:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200803A27.html
> I'd like to see a follow-up show where they see if the owners of the appraised
> items can get anywhere close to the estimates given on the show.
Not a fan of the show, I guess. They've done follow-ups a number of times. I remember once the Keno brothers priced a table at around a quarter million. It exceeded that at a later auction, which was shown as part of the AR episode.
But the best ever segment was from a several years ago. It was the "perfect" Civil War artifact - a sword. According to the expert, just everything about it was fantastic. Turned out to be a set-up job. The expert, who didn't think he was getting enough air time, gave the sword to a friend to bring into the show. When the producers found out, they made an on-air apology, and fired the expert.
One of their "experts" (Wayne Pratt) is currently languishing in jail for selling a stolen copy of the Bill of Rights I believe.
Most of the people whose antiques are appraised admit they don't intend to sell their antiques, especially if they are family heirlooms.
Hi Anonymous:
The KQED/KTEH mix up was my fault. It has been fixed at Collectors Weekly.
Thanks!
-Ben
> One of their "experts" (Wayne Pratt) is currently
> languishing in jail for selling a stolen copy of the Bill of Rights I believe.
I'm thinking it probably isn't Wayne Pratt, at least according to what this quick web search turned up:
http://www.nantucketindependent.com/news/2007/0801/other_news/005.html
When they came to the city nearest me, I really wanted to go. But I didn't get picked. No ticket for me they said via email! I was all ready to go with my junk store paintings! I'm still sure they are worth millions.
Sync! I just inked a "antiques roadshow" parody!
It will appear on ZeekLand two weeks. Not kidding!
This would have been worth a bajillion dollars if it still had the original finish. *hint hint* But now it's worth a buck and a quarter.
San Jose, and nobody brought in a computer?
@Nora Rocket: that was your mom?! I clearly remember that segment! nice :)
@Curtis: yep. Nice that you remembered it! She was a south central Kansas rockstar for a few months there, but she didn't let it go to her head. Buddy L is still in our basement, gathering new dust.
I applied for tickets but didn't get them, sadly. I was going to bring in my long-lost Picassos and Pollacks...
The John Seymour card table mentioned above was appraised at $200-225K or more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYJNlHEpIjE
It sold at Sothebys for $541,000:
http://www.antiquetalk.com/archives/column125.html
I like when they tell people that their 18th century furniture is worth $5000 dollars but it would have been worth $50,000 if they would have left the original lacquer on it instead of refinishing.
I attended the event when they were in Oklahoma City a few years ago. I asked a worker what the most bizarre thing he had seen that day.
His answer?
"The bullet-riddled head of Adolf Hitler."
I stood there in shock and he explains that someone had brought in a huge head from a statue of Adolf Hitler that American Soldiers used as target practice during the fall of Berlin.
The phrase still has a wonderful ring to it.
The bullet-riddled head of Adolf Hitler