urbanfabric

Roadshow Recap

I'm back from Grand Rapids and the Antiques Roadshow... everyone is so curious to hear what it was like and I find I am spending a lot time explaining because it really was so interesting to see how it works! The picture above is from The Grand Rapids Press, front page from Sunday's paper. That's me in the striped shirt, holding a box, and my mom to the left, holding a canvas bag. We were waiting in line for the silver appraiser... but I'll get to that in a minute.

We left my mom's house in Goshen just before 5:30 on Saturday morning, both working on less than four hours sleep. I did the driving, hoping it would wake me up. It took us under 2 hours to get to the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids or Gd Rapids as the signs said (which made for some delusional giggling as my mom recalled her mother using GD in place of god damn, and we proceeded to repeat GD Rapids! and GD Haven! all weekend) and found a parking spot at the parking "ramp" across the street. Apparently, and Kelly thinks I'm making this up, GD Rapids has parking lots and parking ramps. Parking ramps, I figured out ahead of time, meant parking garages.

At 7:15AM there was already a line of people and stuff outside of the convention-type center. Just as we got to the end of the line, it started to move! We hustled inside to the first large room that was mostly empty but all roped off, (like an amusement park that just opened, rollercoaster lines empty, but anticipating hundreds) fully prepared to snake people through the room throughout the day. Since we had 8AM tickets, we were able to go all the way through to the end of the room. This is about the point that we, and everyone else, realized that they were so excited to get here that they hadn't used the restroom after driving for hours. Or eaten breakfast. We were all adrenaline and caffeine fueled. I had talked to Kelly in the parking ramp, they were still on there way down from the northern burbs, but there was no sense throwing away the opportunity to be closer to the front of the line.

At this point there are signs, "turn off cell phones" "remove your items from their packaging" etc. A couple of volunteers are taking tickets. People in front of us start to awkwardly talk to us. Luckily my mom is really good at talking to random people. I try to learn from her. We make it to the front of the line and are directed to a "triage" table. A volunteer looks at our stuff and together we figure out, 3 silver, 1 porcelain. We are given four tickets to correspond to our stuff and proceed to the pink tape line on the floor. My mom and I are greeted there by an army of overzealous volunteers that look like they are about to explode forward over the pink line to assist us. One lucky lady takes us to the filming area.

The filming area. This is the part you see on TV. You'd think it filled an entire room, but really it was a small circle within a much larger and emptier room. It's a set, really, more than the flea market look that you get on TV. The camera sits in the middle, with four blue carpets on the floor around it. On each carpet is a place to film an appraisal segment. Surrounding the carpets are volunteers that are supposed to keep you off the blue carpets. Beyond those folks are the lines and tables with the appraisers. The lines go from the tables, off camera behind the circle.

Our first stop is the Silver table where we meet Sebastian. He came off with a bit of an attitude, but warmed up after a minute or two. I don't know if he's naturally that snarky and sarcastic or if it was the British accent or, as he said, it was "too early for appraisers" but he was clearly settling in for a long day of looking at people's crap. He told us about three of the four pieces we brought that day. One was a silver serving dish and platter that can be traced to my great-grandfather's late-in-life ladyfriend, Dorothy Crockett. The piece is unmarked and Sebastian said it was probably part of a larger set of hotel silver (plated), but was a lovely piece. Probably 1920s, and if he saw it in an antiques store it would probably be marked $250-$300. The second was a sugar-creamer set, also silver plated, marked. He also said 1920s, which is what we thought from the design, but I wondered if it wasn't midcentury or later designed to look older, he said no, the company had changed their name by then. This pair came from Connecticut, like much of the silver and watches from the late 19th and early 20th century. Only $30 for the pair. But, you know, lovely. The third item was a few pieces from a set of silverware of unknown origin. We call them the "devil forks." He said that between the "satan masks" and the grapes (I thought they were thistles), it was likely a baccanalia (sp?) themed set of china made by a small, independent silversmith and that they are actually made of coin silver. So, late 19th century, coin silver, $15-$20 a piece. We don't have a complete set, probably 20 pieces.

After the silver table we moved on to the porcelain table. My mom had a pair of birds that came from her other grandfather's house. Although, she didn't know how he acquired them. At first, the appraiser couldn't identify the mark, then, you know, she just rotated the piece and saw it right side up. She was slightly embarrased by this d'oh moment. Ah, she said, Goebel. Goebel is the German company that makes Hummel figurines. These, she said, were earlier and more... and she stopped. "More interesting than Hummels," I said. "You said it, not me!!" she replied. "Yeah," I said, "have fun spending the day appraising Hummel figurines!!" Even with the damaged tails, $200-300 for the pair. They got a resounding "beautiful" from the other porcelain appraisers.

That was it, we were done. It was 8:15am and we'd already made it through the whole process and made our way to the door. On the way out (in addition to finally making it to the ladies room), we stopped at the "feedback tent" to record our bit about having fun at the roadshow. They give you a lot of advice. It's "AntiqueS Roadshow" not "Antique Roadshow." You have two minutes to talk about your experience. Etc. I asked the camera guy, what do most people do, like 45 seconds? He said, yeah. So, my mom and I rehearsed our bit and I played up the fact that it was my birthday and the camera guy was impressed. Maybe we'll get a five second spot at the end of one of the episodes. Just enough camera time for me!

posted by marthadotcom @ 8:42 PM