Antiques Roadshow Comes to Connecticut

They came by the thousands slowly filling up the cavernous Exhibit Hall. They came clutching their heirlooms, collectibles, and other treasures. Walking the line you saw thousands of pictures, furniture pieces, lamps, tables, even a totem pole. They all had hopes that they just might be sitting on untold riches.

Back after an eight-year absence, some 5,000 people descended upon Hartford’s Convention Center last Saturday to get a free appraisal from the more than 70 experts from auction house such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s. They specialized in furniture, glass, linens, sports memorabilia, art and more. People from Connecticut and Massachusetts and Rhode Island came and waited in line—some for two-plus hours. Some traveled great distances. Gary and Darlene Wincuin traveled from Kentucky to appraised four pieces of Canadian Folk art from the reclusive artist Felicien Levesque.

Because of the demand for the show, not everyone interested in attending can come. The show uses a lottery system of sorts. Out of 11,000 applicants, 3,400 were selected.

Hartford's the last stop for the 13th season after a season that brought the show to Palm Springs, Calif., Dallas, Wichita, Chattanooga and Grand Rapids.

"You'd be surprised," said Judy Mathews, the show’s publicist. "You'll see New England Silver in Michigan. You never know what things will turn up. It just goes to show you what an itinerant country we are that we bring our things with us.”"

The Antiques Roadshow has helped unearth some national treasures. During the 2001 episode in Tucson, AZ, a man arrived with a plain looking Navajo blanket. The owner told one of the show’s appraisers that he generally kept the blanket on the back of a chair. The appraiser deemed that the blanket was an extremely rare artifact from about 1840-1860. Appraised at $350,000 -$500,000, the blanket is the most valuable appraisal in the show’s history. “It was a national treasure,” says Dan Farrell, consulting producer. “It was an important piece even in its time.”

During Antiques Roadshow’s second season, a retired New Jersey School teacher who unwittingly purchased one of two existing French gaming tables at a tag sale thirty years earlier for $25. Appraisers identified the table as a federal -style gaming table made by John and Thomas Seymour of Boston in the late 1700s. She later sold the gaming table for $541,000 at auction. The piece was so rare that only one other exists. Where? The Smithsonian Institution. These rags to riches stories only enhanced the show’s popularity among the viewing public.

Marsha Bemko, executive producer, says its equal pats reality and story telling. “The variety of objects, people and stories that make up each show. So there’s something in it for everyone,” she said. Then there’s the fact that each appraisal segment involves two complementary stories: a personal history from the owner of an object and the professional analysis and context provided by the expert.. “Finally, we present all that useful information in a three-minute or less packaged with a little drama at the end, when a value is placed on the object.

Of course, not all “finds” on the Roadshow are priceless treasures. “I’m more surprised by the odd things that people bring in,” said Ramona Miller-O’Hara, one the show’s pre-appraisers. “I’ve seen human hair collections and a shrunken monkey head. One couple believed they had the beads that purchased Manhattan Island and the provenance (the supporting paperwork) to back it up.”