Antiques Roadshow

Today the Antiques Roadshow came to town, and I got to go!! I applied back in January -- along with 17,000 others!! They chose 3,400 random winners, and I actually won a pair! I love the show; I think it's fascinating to see what people drag out of their attics and what the items are worth. But I'm not an antiques collector, per se, and when they informed me I'd won tickets, panic set in.

What would I take? Where would I find Roadshow-worthy antiques? And, more importantly, just how stupid would I look when the expert told me my items were worth mere pennies. I just wanted to go see the show and be a part of the action -- I wasn't interested in having anything formally appraised. But the tickets stipulated that you had to bring at least one (and could bring two). I had no idea what to take. And I told people this. Lots of people. By the time yesterday rolled around, I had more stuff than I knew what to do with.

My mother-in-law offered old cameras, dolls, figurines, and salt/pepper shakers. My friend Donna brought over a Disney coaster. Other friends began cataloging their older belongings. And after struggling similarly with what to bring, my mom, whom I had invited to join me, ended up bring a boxful -- we can decide later, she reasoned.

So here's what we decided to take. This first one was a given ... it's an antique toy stove, made of cast iron, that my mom's aunt passed down to her. Mom has always been curious about it.

Next, Mom decided to take a few of these canisters; she has a whole set at home (also passed down from the same aunt). They have a really interesting finish and are stamped on the bottom "Czechoslovakia."

As for me, I decided to take this sword that Bobby found in the attic of a rental house he was playing in when he was 10. He wanted to know more about it.

And finally, at the last minute, I decided to take a collection of my grandfather's WWII military medals, including some Nazi emblems that were sent home with his belongings. (My grandfather was killed in WWII and is buried in Belgium.)

Our ticket was stamped with an entry time of 9 a.m. The AR organizers stagger the admission times to try to control the crowds. Think they succeeded? This was the 9 a.m. line at 8:55 ...

Actually, it wasn't too bad. We had to wait in this monster line at first, but it moved pretty quickly. You first see a "generalist," who looks at your items and assigns you a category. Mom's stove was classified "Toys," the cannisters "Pottery and Porcelain," and my two items "Arms and Militaria." Because Mom's stove was pretty heavy (it's cast iron, remember?), we had taken my rolling scrapbook cart to carry it and our other items. This cart has a top part and a bottom part. The stove was in the bottom, and as we were leaving the generalist's table, I didn't have the cart secured, and the bottom part went flying. You can imagine the loud clanging noise as a big cast iron stove and 13 little pieces hit the concrete Trade Center floor. Time stopped for a split second -- it seemed the whole exhibit hall was silent, followed by a small, collective groan -- and then we realized that everyone thought we'd broken a treasured antique. I wanted to stand up and yell, "It's OK, it's cast iron! Nothing's broken." But I didn't.

We headed to the Arms & Militaria table first. And even though I hadn't cared about getting an appraisal, as I got closer to the appraiser, I got more excited. It wasn't so much that I thought my items were about to make me a millionaire; the simple act of learning more about them was just as exciting.

That table was right next to the Furniture table, a popular and crowded category. While we were waiting for our turn with the A/M appraiser, I spotted the Keno twins, Leslie and Leigh. They're two of the more famous AR appraisers, and for a while they had their own PBS show where they'd go rummaging through people's attics, offering mini-appraisals along the way. I'm not sure, but I think this one might be Leigh ...

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Next, we went to the Toys table to get Mom's stove looked at, and finally the Pottery & Porcelain table. It was neat to see the things other people brought and to eavesdrop on their appraisals (though most were happy to share the results, even when they weren't good ... one man discovered that his lamp marked "Tiffany" was really made in India in 1957). We also got to watch a bit of the actual filming:

Not everyone gets filmed, of course. When an appraiser sees something valuable or unique, he or she will halt the appraisal, consult with a show producer, and they'll decide whether a taped segment is appropriate. When this happens, usually the appraiser abruptly stops talking with the guest -- they don't want to give away anything about the item's worth so that the owners' on-camera reactions are genuine. While waiting in the Toys line, I listened as a second expert evaluated a huge framed map and then deemed it "one of the top two maps of Virginia." I didn't see them get on TV, but I bet they did. We also saw taping of a segment with an authentic (I guess) Disney cell from what looked like The Sorcerer's Apprentice part of Fantasia. A lady watching the taping with us said she'd been right behind the guy in line, and as soon as he put the framed cell on the table, all of the appraisers at that table gasped. It will be really neat to see that one air.

All in all, it was a really interesting way to spend the morning. We found ourselves second-guessing some of our choices. As in, "Maybe those cameras would have been worth more." or "If I'd done a little bit of internet research ahead of time, I'd have known that Czechoslovakia didn't exist until 1918." But still ... it was fun. With a couple of pleasant surprises.

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Oh, you wanted the results?? ;-) Here's what we found out ...

The sword: It's actually called a Kris and dates to around the 1920's. It's from the Philippines and is worth about $30.

The canisters: They're not any older than 1918. They were mass-produced in Czech. and weren't hand-painted. The finish was just enamel (I think he said.) Total value for the entire set: about $50.

The stove: Dates back to the 1890's. Is a toy, made of cast-iron, though the appraiser seemed a bit smitten with its finish ... he went on and on about it. (Of course, now we can't remember exactly what he said about it.) He went into a lot of detail about how the toy stove differed from a sales model -- not that WE would have ever confused the two. Value: between $200 and $300.

The WWII medals: This was the biggest surprise of the day, especially considering I only decided to take them at the last minute. The appraiser was most interested in the Purple Hearts, one of which is engraved with my grandfather's name.

I would have assumed having the medal engraved after the fact would lesson its value -- usually AR appraisers advise against tampering with anything original -- but evidently in this case, it adds to the value because it ties the medal to a specific veteran. He told us we should insure the engraved medal for at least $300, and he estimated the total value of all the medals to be around $500.

The Chattanooga episode is scheduled to air sometime in spring 2009. I'll let you know as soon as I hear a specific date.

And in an ironic turn of events, when we got home, Bobby's sword slipped from its high-tech craft paper safety wrapping and plummeted tip down onto my foot. It grazed my toe and embedded itself into the soft rubber of my flip-flop. At first glance, I thought it had pierced my toe and was stuck there ... one of those, "Oh man, that's going to hurt in a minute" kind of things. I was very relieved to discover that my flip-flop had taken the brunt of the wound.

That Wikipedia link on krisses says that some blades are thought to possess good luck, and others bad. I'm not superstitious, but after this little episode, I'm ready to have the thing out of my house.