Antiques Roadshow set dates for West Fargo taping to air
Producers of the highly rated “Antiques Roadshow” announced this week when three episodes taped at Bonanzaville earlier this summer will air.
Demee Gambulos, director of brand marketing and audience development for the national program, said the episodes will air Jan. 27, Feb. 3 and Feb. 10. “Antiques Roadshow” is aired on the local Prairie Public channel at 7 p.m.
The show held its first taping in the metro area on June 1 at Bonanzaville and drew in about 3,000 artifacts from roughly 4,000 ticket holders. Nearly 7,000 area residents applied for tickets to the show.
Shortly after the day of taping, producers announced one lucky owner had an item, a special-edition Rolex, that appraisers deemed likely valued at $500,000 to $700,000. The appraisal will likely be shown during the episodes.
During the taping, items were divided into more than 20 categories, from art, furniture, jewelry and collectibles to toys and artifacts. Ticket holders then met with one of more than 70 professional appraisers, who flew in from across the nation and volunteered their time. If the appraiser found an interesting piece, they alerted producers, who would then choose whether the item would be appraised on camera by the show’s hosts.
“Antiques Roadshow” executive producer Marsha Bemko said she met a woman at the taping, whose mother worked as a silversmith under Georg Jensen, a renowned Danish silversmith in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
“She would have been the only woman working as a silversmith in that shop,” Bemko said. The woman’s daughter brought in not only silver created by her mother with the Jensen signature, but a handwritten letter of recommendation he wrote for the woman when she decided to leave his shop and create her own art.
The items were valued at $30,000 to $35,000, but the story behind the items is priceless, Bemko said.
“I just loved hearing about that girl’s story,” she said.
“Antiques Roadshow” will be in its 24th season on PBS in 2020.