Displaying items by tag: Antiques Roadshow

"Can I walk?" said one lucky attendee as she tried to stand up after a jewelry appraiser put a value of $140,000 to $160,000 on a yellow diamond engagement ring. The owner of the 3.4 carat stone hugged appraiser Lila Bankston as she walked away Saturday during a taping of the popular PBS program "Antiques Roadshow" at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

PDA's (public displays of affection) were all around when an item was appraised highly. Leila Dunbar got a big hug after she appraised a Sonja Henie skating dress for a large amount.
 
Others, such as Tracy Stone of Golden Valley, left with less exuberance. "I thought it was handmade in Norway," she said of the 6-ft tapestry she brought. Turns out it's machine-made, probably from France, and is a common tourist item worth about $75. Ouch.
The star of the show, besides the yellow diamond, was a Frederic Remington bronze sculpture (right) called "Mountain Man." Although the signed piece lacks a model number, making its exact date difficult to determine, the appraiser put the value between $250,000 and $300,000 at auction. The piece was inherited from the guest's grandfather and has been in his family for 100 years.

Lady Gaga is hooked on 'Antiques Roadshow'.

The 25-year-old singer - who is well known for her eccentric tastes - is obsessed with the British TV show where people bring in their valuables to find out their value, and friends have now bought her a DVD box set of classic episodes so she can watch them on the road.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "Lady Gaga is really into her antiques so British pals thought she might be interested in the program.

"It went down a storm and Gaga hasn't stopped watching the DVDs. She loves how the old people think their antique is a bit of old rubbish but ends up costing thousands. It's right up her street."

Eugene delivered a “wow” moment for The Antiques Roadshow on Saturday after a Norman Rockwell painting was deemed to be worth an estimated $500,000, tied for the second most valuable item ever appraised in the 15-year history of the Public Broadcasting Service television program.
The daylong taping of the show involved about 6,000 local ticket holders who brought their collectibles to the Lane Events Center for appraisal.

John Jordan, the show's publicist, said he could not reveal the identity of the painting's owner but confirmed the person lives in the Springfield area.

The artwork is a 1919 original oil-on-canvas painting by Rockwell titled The Little Model that was used on a cover of Collier's magazine. The painting depicts a girl with a dog, posing in front of a fashion poster. The owner told appraiser Nan Chisholm, of Nan Chisholm Fine Art in New York City, that the painting had been in the family for at least 90 years after Rockwell gave it to his great-grandmother.

Eugene delivered a “wow” moment for The Antiques Roadshow on Saturday after a Norman Rockwell painting was deemed to be worth an estimated $500,000, tied for the second most valuable item ever appraised in the 15-year history of the Public Broadcasting Service television program.
The daylong taping of the show involved about 6,000 local ticket holders who brought their collectibles to the Lane Events Center for appraisal.

John Jordan, the show's publicist, said he could not reveal the identity of the painting's owner but confirmed the person lives in the Springfield area.

The artwork is a 1919 original oil-on-canvas painting by Rockwell titled The Little Model that was used on a cover of Collier's magazine. The painting depicts a girl with a dog, posing in front of a fashion poster. The owner told appraiser Nan Chisholm, of Nan Chisholm Fine Art in New York City, that the painting had been in the family for at least 90 years after Rockwell gave it to his great-grandmother.

There’s a moment in the first episode of Channel 4’s new antiques show Four Rooms when everything you would traditionally expect from an antiques programme is suddenly and summarily consigned to the dustbin of history.

The set-up is familiar: a member of the public brings in an item of interest – something they bought or have been keeping in the attic – and the show’s four resident experts look it over. They include items as diverse as a nose section of Concorde, a piece of wall by the graffiti artist Banksy, a tattooed piece of skin, and in the first programme, a bust of Adolf Hitler that had been taken from a concentration camp.

From there, however, things begin to change. The show soon starts to resemble Dragons’ Den more than Antiques Roadshow. All the pieces have been brought in to be sold. The experts are all established dealers. The seller can go into any of four rooms to visit the dealer of their choice, who will make them an offer for it, even if it is only the price of their bus fare home. They can take it, haggle, or move on to the next room. They can’t go back.

In the first show, among the items brought in is a collection of Christmas cards sent by Diana, Princess of Wales to her personal chef, which the owner had purchased at auction. They begin with photos of Charles and Diana, progress to images of the royal couple with their young family and end with pictures of the Princess alone with her two sons.

There’s some discussion about the significance of the collection and the fact that the signatures on the cards are handwritten. “I can just tell you want a fortune,” says 54-year-old dealer Gordon Watson, who specialises in selling rare, “museum-quality” pieces to the ultra-wealthy.

The owner chooses to go first into the room occupied by 39-year-old Emma Hawkins, who grew up in Australia, the daughter of an antiques dealer. She specialises in exotic taxidermy and curiosities, such as deformed narwhal tusks. “No item is too weird for her,” the show claims. Not strictly true, she tells me later: “I was offered a mummified hand that was used in black magic rituals. Things like that, anything Satanic, I don’t necessarily feel I would want to touch.”

The seller turns down her offer, and before long finds himself in another of the four rooms discussing a sale with Jeff Salmon, the scarf-wearing owner of Decoratum in London, a gallery whose clients include Kate Moss, Lily Allen and Uma Thurman.

The 57-year-old self-confessed “maverick” wonders aloud “What will I pay for them?” while rolling a red dice between thumb and forefinger like a character in an Ian Fleming novel. Then he asks: “Are you a gambling man?”

Salmon proposes a deal: “If you throw odds, you’ll take ten thousand quid, if you throw evens, you’ll take £25,000.”
At that moment, given the sensitivity surrounding what they are gambling for, Antiques Roadshow suddenly seems as if it belongs to another age entirely.

“Perhaps I was feeling a little bored that day,” says Salmon, later. “It’s not the most conventional way to do business but I just wanted to mirror everything that happens in my own office.” He says the dice actually come out far more often in his everyday dealings – once a week or so.

“I’m a trained negotiator,” he says. “If I can see weakness, if I can smell blood, I’ll go for that blood. I’m like a heat-seeking missile. Just by looking at somebody, I know what somebody is thinking. My father used to say, ‘If a mug comes along, take his trousers off.’ But I would never ever take advantage... unless,” he adds with a laugh, “I really want something.”

Since Leslie and Leigh Keno became household names appraising antique furniture on the popular PBS series "Antiques Roadshow," you'd be forgiven for presuming their own line of furniture, Keno Bros., would pay homage to Duncan Phyfe, Chippendale and the like. Instead, the line they introduced at the International Furniture Markets last year is a stunningly beautiful collection of sleek, polished, modern profiles crafted by Theodore Alexander.

"It's all sculptural, really. We see these pieces as very sculptural," said Leigh.

The maple and hand-woven cane Slope chair, which appears to be carved from one piece, is a perfect example of this quality; the arms and legs form a continuous curve.

"It was our vision to make a comfortable chair that is alive and organic," Leigh said.

The Kenos, whose collection will appear in showrooms this month, have taken their extensive furniture expertise and applied it to their own pieces. The brothers also host "Collect This! With The Keno Brothers" on MSN. Leigh owns and operates Keno Auctions in New York, and Leslie is director of American furniture and decorative arts at Sotheby's auction house.