Antiques Roadshow’ Reveals The Humanity Lurking In Our Household Objects
JAKE KING | MAY 7, 2020
In a TV age of gritty prestige dramas, dark anti-heroes and indiscernible, cookie-cutter reality television, one show soldiers on to its 24th season — dealing in art, history and storytelling, creating a space where everyday objects become imbued with power and value, sometimes in life-altering ways. This is not science fiction, this is “Antiques Roadshow,” which continues to appraise a seemingly endless supply of rarities, collectibles and, to some, straight-up junk.
You may think I’m joking about the life-altering part, but tell that to the humble camo-bandana-wearing veteran from this season who was informed his Rolex watch from the ’70s was worth between $500,000 and $700,000. “I had been waiting for very many years for somebody to fall down after we tell him something,” Executive Producer Marsha Bemko said of the moment when the appraisal, quite literally, knocked the Rolex owner off his feet.
“Antiques Roadshow” is the most-watched ongoing series on PBS and a source of continued comfort for nearly 8 million viewers every week. I’m one of those 8 million, and “Antiques Roadshow” is the only piece of television that our household considers appointment viewing anymore.
“It’s actually smart, and you don’t feel dirty after you watch it,” poster appraiser, Swann Gallery President and three-piece-suit aficionado Nicho Lowry explained. “I think people really appreciate the fact that it’s very unusual to watch television and actually walk away feeling enriched.”
Lowry also happens to be a fan-favorite appraiser in this household for the vibe that he brings: handlebar mustache, impressive aforementioned three-piece-suite collection (33 in total, consisting of tartan, plaid, tweed and windowpane), and his nonthreatening knowledge of graphic design and posters that feels human and democratic. He’s not talking at a guest when he’s explaining a poster, but rather setting a scene, giving context, explaining why an image warms his heart, and maybe yours too. “A good poster is a poster that makes you smile … it’s that simple,” he said.
It’s that sort of ethos that carries through to other “characters” on “Antiques Roadshow” as well. The appraisers that make up the series’ universe all have their own quirks, eccentricities and knowledge bases that you’ll come to love and appreciate the more you watch.
”All of our appraisers have groupies,” Bemko proudly told me. Watch enough “Antiques Roadshow,” and you too will find the appraiser who speaks to you. It’s part of the built-in fun of being able to spend time with these characters each week. Case in point: I’ll ride or die for American folk and decorative art expert Ken Farmer, who has expanded my understanding of folk art and the ordinary people who were “doing things that meant something to them.” He also speaks with a poetic Southern cadence that soothes my soul.
For the uninitiated or unaware, the format of “Antiques Roadshow” is reliably simple. The show comes to town and sets up a public ticketed event. Earlier seasons found “Roadshow” in sterile convention centers. (Yes, I’ve watched them, and you can too, with a Passport membership.)
In recent years the show has taken a page from the British forefathers from which it licenses the brand and now sets up in historical locations across the United States. Traveling to spots like Bonanzaville, Winterthur Museum and Churchill Downs, the on-site visits offer a bit more aesthetic intrigue to the appraisals while providing historical info about the surroundings.
Each ticket holder to a “Roadshow” event can bring two objects for appraisal. Upon entering, they’re filtered through a triage table, where they’re assigned a category based on the objects they’ve brought in. Family heirloom earrings? Jewelry ticket. A landscape painting? Painting ticket. From there, ticket holders wait to have their treasures appraised by the experts of “Antiques Roadshow.”
When they do, Bemko explained that one of two things happen: The appraiser will “assess” the item and tell the guest what they brought. Or she’ll look at them and say something along the lines of: “Do you mind waiting for a producer?”
This is a key element of “Roadshow” magic. “The experts are the ones who decide this is worth consideration; not us,” Bemko pointed out. “They deserve the credit for deciding ‘Is this worth consideration for air?’”
Once an object is approved, the appraiser and producer work together behind the scenes to craft a narrative around the piece, with the appraiser drawing from years of expertise to research and assign value to the item.
“We research past sales of like objects in order to determine the market and then make adjustments for the item that we are valuing,” collectibles appraiser Leila Dunbar explained. “In my world of sports and entertainment memorabilia, we look at the historical importance of the celebrity, rarity, condition, authenticity, provenance and the biggest intangible, desirability, and then figure out where the appraised item fits in.”
The appraiser and the item’s owner will then tape their segment, with the guest hearing the final appraisal for the first time. This is an exciting and increasingly rare bit of pure reality TV. “You’re seeing how professional appraisers who weren’t necessarily trained actors, interacting with the public, who are generally not trained either,” James Supp, an appraiser who covers “items no one else wants to or can do,” said.
Also of note is that these professional appraisers all volunteer their time to be on “Roadshow.” They are not being compensated to appear on the program and pay out of pocket for travel and hotel expenses. “They know that the trust associated with the program is something they want to be associated with,” Bemko said.
Along with trust and expertise, what also makes “Antiques Roadshow” unique is that the dramatic stakes are modest to non-existent. There are no “gotcha” moments; no competitions, winners or losers, or scores to be settled — just people, their stuff and good stories. That last part is really what the “Roadshow” really trades in. For appraiser Laura Woolley, many of the objects she does deal in hold very little, if any, value on their own.
“I always say that I’m in the business of selling stories,” Wooley said. “And that’s mainly because most of what I handle — which is kind of celebrity, Hollywood, rock and roll, pop culture stuff — has almost no value outside of the fact that it belonged to someone famous, was used for something important or has some intrinsic value.”
Dunbar similarly intimated: “To me the story is everything … these tales take an inanimate object and transform it into a living piece of history. So, it doesn’t matter to me whether the item is worth $1 or $1 million if the story is priceless.”
“I like to pretend I’m an antiques communicator,” Supp eloquently said.
These days anyone can go on the internet and basically determine what something is likely worth. So why stand on line if you already know the price of the object you’re bringing in? “You may know it’s worth a thousand dollars … but a lot of people are curious,” Lowry answered. “They may want to know, ‘Why is it worth a thousand dollars?’”
As for why audiences keep coming back each week to watch “Antiques Roadshow,” Bemko put it well: “We have a chance to teach about history. We have human interest stories. You will hear a love story on ‘Antiques Roadshow.’ You’ll learn about militaria in the same show you learn about diamonds … You are going to learn something when you watch this show.”
Consider one of her favorite appraisals, a peach can label from 1918. An object with almost no value on its own, a special story attached seals its worth: The back of the label is a letter from a soldier in the trenches of World War I to the peach manufacturer, expressing how much they enjoy the canned fruits.
Humanity is lurking inside all the objects we own, and in a time where social interaction is limited, maybe we can all take comfort in knowing the items in our lives have stories to tell, and that “Antiques Roadshow” is there to help unlock and tell them.