Good evening.

I'm Cliff Blake and welcome NH PBS members and fans of the Antiques Roadshow.

This is an insider's view of what goes on at the Antiques Roadshow.

It is PBS's most watched and beloved series and you know, without your generous contributions, we wouldn't be here and neither will the Antiques Roadshow.

Tonight's Insider series is a doozy.

We've done four of these, and this one is really special because it's an hour long talk with executive producer Marsha Bemko and Roadshow appraiser Arlie Sulka.

And by the way, support for tonight's PBS insider series is made possible by great folks from Grappone Automotive, First Seacoast Bank, Silverstone Living and New Hampshire Humanities Just a few notes about tonight's Insider series as we begin.

You, the audience are muted so you can get comfy, have a drink, and a snack.

And I'll be asking some audience questions that were submitted in advance.

Your questions during the show.

You can put them in the chat box that you see located to the side there and they'll pass them on to me and we'll try and get some of those in, please.

Just a reminder, we will not be appraising any items are estimating any value of objects as part of tonight's program program is being recorded and the link will be sent to all of you after the event.

And NHPBS is also planning to send a very short after the show survey.

And we'd love to get your feedback on that, too.

So it's time to get started.

I want to welcome Antiques Roadshow executive producer Marsha Benko and Roadshow appraiser Arlie Sulka.

First, a little bio information on the ladies.

Marsha Bemko is known for capturing moments that combine compelling history with authentic human stories.

Marsha's television career spans 30 years, if you can believe that.

She looks so young.

Most notably as executive producer for the 19 time Emmy Award nominated Antiques Roadshow.

During her tenure, Antiques Roadshow has been recognized with multiple awards, and Marsha has also spearheaded Antiques Roadshow expansion to the digital and social platforms.

Kind of like tonight.

And there's Arlie Sulka.

She's originally from Portland, Maine.

She's a graduate of Smith College and the owner of the world renowned Tiffany Gallery, the Lillian Nassaw LLC in New York City.

She's a recognized specialist and dealer in late 19th and early 20th century decorative arts.

Arlie has been a devotee of the works of Louis Comfort, Tiffany and Tiffany Studios, particularly his blown glass lamps windows, mosaics and ceramics, too.

And well, here we are, all ladies.

I am so happy to be in sort of the studio, but on the same screen with all of you on this Insider series.

Marsha, I wanted to start tonight with kind of an overview of how Antiques Roadshow gets produced and how the shooting in New Hampshire when at the Omni Mount Washington Resort.

And Arlie, I hope you'll be able to join in, too, because you both have such close ties to New England.

So take it away, Marsha.

Okay.

Let me take it away.

First of all, I have to thank all of you for coming and a thank you to New Hampshire and PBS, because we could not make this show without our station partners.

Truly, they put the public in public television.

How we make both show and thank you for coming.

And anybody out there who came to the show all day, a huge thank you for coming that day.

Now, one thing I have learned, I have been producing Antiques Roadshow for over 20 of its 26 years because you were asked on our season 26 toys and one thing that the appraisers have taught me over all these years, and that is if you think you have a six figure object in your house that you don't know about you don't.

So one of the people who taught me that was appraisal Arlie Sulka and I just bought Ali to say hello because a couple of things about Ali you don't know.

Ali, like all the appraisers who work with Roadshow, is an unpaid volunteer Not only is she an unpaid volunteer, but it costs her employees that work for willing and also to come to Rochelle to accost her because they pay their own way.

They pay their own hotel nights.

So it's important to her to come to Roadshow.

And she crazy girl.

Ali has been doing that since season three.

So she's a long time roadie.

And Ali, people won't know where you're sitting.

So just tell us a little bit about where you are sitting right now.

So I'm sitting in my gallery in New York City, and the name of it is Lilly in Nassau, and it's named for the founder Lilly Nassau, who opened her business in 1945 and began to specialize in the work of Louis Comfort, Tiffany and Tiffany Studios.

And at that time the work really wasn't very much in favor.

And she is actually single.

She is credited with having single handedly revived the interest in his work.

And I began working for her in 1980 and I never left.

So I hope I never have to write a resume because it's not that interesting.

But actually in 2006 I acquired the business from the family and we continue to dominate the field and I still have the same passion that Lillian has and I plan on having it for many years to come.

Ali has told me she's going to work until she kills over so she's going to be in that very special place for a very long time.

And me out in my chair.

Yeah, there you go.

So Ali was there with us that day in Bretton Woods.

And let me tell you, I don't know if any of you were, but Bretton Woods was our second stop on our season 26 tour.

We were there on September 1st.

It was our first time in New Hampshire.

And I'm wondering, did you try to come to the show or have you ever tried to come to the show?

And do you wonder how what is your chance of getting into a road show?

Well, let me tell you how that works.

We ticket the events because if we let people line up, too many people would line up.

And people were starting to sleep out overnight.

And that is what we would do.

And as you know, we were planning to have for this and hope it got in the way.

So what we did this year was we we tried to mimic the ticketing of people for there by submitting objects.

So normally when people apply to come to the event, we have fun to 30,000 people applied depends on where city is and the population of the city and this was different.

But how many people applied to come to Bretton Woods?

Well, up to be exact, 1904 people applied to come.

That means that was how many submissions we had.

That's how many people took the time to upload a photo.

Tell us their story.

And so what we did normally, what we do when we make a road show is we run around the show and Ali and all the other appraisers will pitch a producer.

I'm one of three producers running around taking the pitches, as we say.

And so they come to a road show.

They don't know even if they'll take something.

They don't know what's going to come through the door that day.

So we try to mimic that.

The appraisers, instead of seeing what came through the door, they went through all the submissions that came in.

And then instead of pitching us on the floor, they pitched us by email and tried it.

And then like from where they would try to convince us why we should take this object that is just what happens when we're out on the field.

Now, what we have to do, what we do when we're at a show is talk to the owner Well, that was kind of fun.

A little different this year.

Let me tell you what you people did when we called you.

You didn't answer the phone You thought we were spam.

You thought we were you know, they callers.

We tried to figure out ways.

They even changed my caller I.D.

to make that stop happening.

And it worked a little bit.

But with the minute you got the voicemail, well, you called right back and then I would explain, please.

When you see my my number again picked up and we would interview the guests to decide, did we want to take this object and what would you do on those phone calls?

And what we do on any road show interview when we're considering something for camera is we get really, really nosy.

So nosy that you couldn't ask the kinds of questions that we ask at a dinner table.

So, like, how many times do you say to your friends or what did you pay for that?

So you ask questions like that.

What did you pay for that?

And where did you get it?

And if the story doesn't add up, well, how come you paid this much and you say you got it there?

So we we sort of drilled down on that well.

And we were I'll be honest, this is the first and hopefully the only time we produce Roadshow that way.

And we were a little nervous.

Would it worked?

Well, if you've been watching it worked because you have seen to ours air that we made shows.

And unless you knew or you were an astute roadshow watcher, and you noticed there were less people in the background, the you couldn't maybe tell that we didn't shoot it like a normal tour.

What we had to do in order to stay covid-safe this year was schedule only people that were being taped to come in.

So when you watch the shows and you see the feedback booth and you want to wonder why are the people in the feedback booth the same people who were in being taped?

Well, because that's the only people we were able to let into that onto the set this year.

And so what are we doing now after the show?

Well, what we do is we spend an enormous amount of time, more than you think, editing and fact-checking and that because we know we're teaching with material culture and we we are just finishing cutting and we're getting ready to tour again.

And we're also looking at where are we going to go for season 28.

The good news, since we have finished cutting your city and from all the cities is that we promised to make three episodes from every city.

We had the confidence to commit to that.

But we make something we call behind the scenes git.

It stands for junk in the trunk.

And before we went out and shot, we didn't have the confidence that that we could make a jet because what it is, is the leftovers from every city.

We don't have enough to make you 4 hours, but we have enough from every city to make.

Isn't that a cute title?

Jump in the trunk.

And.

And we do so after the three episodes that air.

Now, we haven't made jet yet.

That gets made after we cut everything else.

We'll also have more from your city with Jet.

Now, the question I get asked the most, so I'd like to address it now.

Is, after the show, what do people do with their stuff?

I'm here to tell you nothing.

No matter what it's worth, they may ensure it often happens but do they sell it?

Most of the time they do not.

The day you sell it, you can't afford to buy it back.

And there's always a cost to sell.

Just like anything.

Anything else.

There's always a cost to sell.

But really, we have so few of those stories to tell.

We tell them in our specials like extraordinary things.

Because when I first started making the show, I figured after people got this great news, they would sell their stuff.

Right.

The answer is no.

I want to make a series about that, and it just isn't enough stories to tell that way.

So we make specials where we do tell you stories where it does happen just doesn't happen very often.

So we made you a real for tonight.

And the real what is on for tonight is first you're going to see the bed.

That's what we call the sequence where you see the people, including viewers like you, who support Antiques Roadshow and they're there because we wouldn't be there if they weren't there.

And then do you watch our Hidden Treasures, Hidden Treasures, other segments that air at the very end of their show?

That's why they're called Hidden Treasures.

And I fear that sometimes some of our audience doesn't watch.

So I put a lot of the real the hidden treasures for Bretton Woods wondering, I want to show you something you didn't see that you may not have seen from the first two shows.

And also because Ali's here, and if you missed it, it's just worth seeing again.

I've seen it a million times and it's just worth seeing again.

And that's all these New Hampshire big find, one of our biggest finds of the tour with a really interesting chicken poop story.

And then very special to just this audience tonight, a special preview of Hamilton, which is the next city to air Hamilton's big fine from grounds for sculpture.

And that airs starts airing on April 11th.

So let's take a look at that reel and we'll be back The people who make Antiques Roadshow possible.

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She had a dream and decided to pursue it.

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Financial group believe that with financial knowledge, financial independence is within reach.

More than 50,000 agents from many walks of life make it their mission to educate clients to help them meet financial goals.

Learn more at World Financial Group dot com American Cruise Lines, proud sponsor of Antiques Roadshow Mom said she isn't in the mood to see friends and would rather be by herself.

Occasionally I have something to say, but the word I want is lost and it comes out wrong.

Don't mind me, I'm just a bit lost in the world.

And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you Thank you So I would love to know how you got this.

My grandfather was a superintendent of the grounds at an estate in Gloucester Massachusetts at Eastern Point.

And this apparently came from the estate.

I don't know when, but somehow he got it and it was in his chicken coop for years because where do you put a piece like this?

Then it went to my parents house where it went to the attic where it stayed for many years, where it came to my house in the nineties.

This was on the sun porch for many years.

And then in the summertime, we put it in the barn up in the loft and that means traveled a lot.

And then it went to my dining room not too long ago.

It's Tiffany, like in terms of the design, but we know absolutely nothing about it.

I have to say, with that back history, I am amazed that it is in such phenomenal condition.

I mean, really, there are very, very few cracks in it.

And because of its size, something like that would be very prone to damage.

So you obviously took very good care of it by mistake.

This is an interesting piece because, yes, it's not signed, but it is signed in its own way because the type of glass that you see particularly the background glass was made at Tiffany.

It's a geometric shade.

This almost mimics like an Aztec design around the edge.

This thing is really huge and it's massive.

And it's something that wouldn't be in full production based on the size alone.

33 inches in diameter.

I'm shocked at how big it is.

What's interesting about it is also is looking at the hardware.

Some of it's Tiffany and some of it's not.

The sockets are attached to arms in that house ball and the pipe that goes up to the top.

And those parts are not Tiffany.

There are, period.

Yeah, but they're not Tiffany, but the chains and the lovely arms coming out of the top, those have these decorative devices that you'd see on a lot of the early Tiffany Lamp bases of the time.

Yeah, the finish on the shade is interesting because it doesn't really have a finish.

And this is also characteristic of pieces that are so early.

Yeah, this was probably a custom made piece for the mansion.

Yeah.

This based on the glass in the fact that it isn't sign makes me think that it was made between 1919 02.

One of the great things about the shade is the way it's constructed and I think one of the reasons it's survived as long as it has is on the interior it has these wonderful support things.

Yeah.

And in typical Tiffany fashion, they are placed in such a way that they, they are not obscuring any part of the glass, but yet it lends the support to the shade they follow.

Like the lines here.

And then when it gets here, it's zigzags over here and moves this way where the hook was placed.

So it was very artfully done.

And that's the thing about Tiffany.

The attention to detail points in every direction that this was made by Tiffany.

Oh, wow.

Even with no signature but I love when you ask that because most of the fake Tiffany out there is signed.

Oh, but there's a tremendous amount of early shades that are not signed.

But the way they're made, the kind of glass that is.

Yes, the design.

Yeah, those are the signatures.

Oh, good.

Oh, good.

So I'm glad it's not signed.

Yeah.

I'm happier that it's unsigned because it really confirms the date when it was made and it's got Tiffany all over.

Okay.

Something like this in a retail setting could be priced anywhere between 100,000 and $150,000.

Good to know.

So the pole coming down and that semicircle.

Not there, not Tiffany knock.

It doesn't matter.

Okay.

And it's John F Kennedy.

Profiles in Courage.

Profiles in Courage was a book that he did to promote his career.

And what makes it very special is the nice, long inscription.

And this photograph is a fabulous photograph.

That's what his early signature looks like.

Oh, good.

On a retail level, that's probably about a $5,000 photograph.

Oh, my.

The book.

You have another $5,000.

Even in this incredible All I know is what my mother told me when she gave it to me for my birthday between 20 and 30 years ago.

She said that my great grandparents brought it from Russia when they came in the 1890.

This piece in fact did not come from Russia but is of American make so it's a piece that is by Kremlin's which Kremlin's and is one of America's celebrated jewelers.

Originally it was intended to be a watch pendant brooch.

It could be worn as just approach.

And then also as a pendant which is where this little pendant hoop could be put on a chain This is all beautifully enameled.

Many of these pieces don't have the added seed pearls so that makes your piece slightly higher in value.

We would put an auction estimate of 800 to 1200 1200 on it.

I'm going to have to wear it.

It's beautiful.

I think you should.

This was an inheritance from my paternal great on Bessie.

She was a member of the Saturday Evening Girls Club.

Started in 19 01 for young immigrant, Italian and Jewish women.

What tried to do was not only assimilate an immigrant population, but to create something beautiful in the process.

Auction value somewhere between three and $4,000.

And for insurance I insure for $5,000.

Well, it's a family heirloom, so it's obviously staying in the family.

And now a sneak peek of grounds for sculpture.

It is a celadon bowl.

That was a gift to me from my uncle who brought it from Japan.

He was a civilian director of the educational troupes after the war.

So this was one of the things that he sent back probably was made before the war.

So it's at least probably 80, maybe even 100 years old as possible.

He obviously had planned to have a house and put all these things in it.

And then he went blind.

As a result.

This stuff sat in my grandmother's attic for a good many years.

And finally he rediscovered it and gave it to me as a Christmas gift to my husband.

I've actually got a picture of my cat sitting in that bowl at some point or another, and it would hold a large cat at that of tremendous size.

Obviously, it's something we've just lived with, but I've always felt it was special.

Celadon is a favorite of mine as well, and it's a favorite of the Japanese and has been for centuries.

There are a number of clues that I would look to to identify this exactly what it is and where it came from.

The first is the label on this box.

There's a label on the back of the charger as well.

I wouldn't call this a bowl.

This is a charger.

So an oversize dish that they would have maybe served oranges or just a large sort of dramatic display piece.

But there's a mark on the back.

It's six characters in all, and it indicates dashing young son ninja.

Okay.

He's Chinese.

Now, how did a Chinese sell it on charger of this type end up in Japan?

Well, it turns out that for centuries the Japanese were the world's most ardent collectors of Celadon wares.

There's a kind of a cliché.

Good things come in small packages.

Well, in the Asian art trade good things come in Japanese boxes.

The Japanese were such fine, fine connoisseurs of the absolute, most beautiful, the most sublime Chinese Japanese and other antiques.

When we see a collector's box of this type, it excites us tremendously because the Japanese had such a long legacy of collecting.

The knowledge was there, the connoisseurship was there.

And this label, by the way, says exactly the contents of the package and always wondered about this.

Essentially, it says Large Celadon, porcelain dish, yong chang, period.

Okay, so it's good to see that the label matches the contents of the box.

Sometimes boxes and ceramics are kind of put together that didn't originally go together.

But this is a box clearly made to to house this beautiful work of of porcelain.

The dragon is sublime, the glaze is impeccable, and there's very few signs of age in this.

So I wouldn't blame you to look at it or anyone for that matter, and and not really see the history.

You can see the quality.

You can see the beauty in it.

But the young Chang period is from 1722 to 1735.

Hmm.

It's a very short period, but it's a period in Chinese history when some of the finest ceramics were made arguably of all time.

This is quite a discovery.

Have you ever thought about the value or do you have any idea what this would do at auction if it were sold today?

I, I have always felt that it was probably worth something.

I mean, maybe $1,000, and that's because I collect ceramics that are contemporary.

And I know if I were buying something like this, other than that, no idea.

The Chinese porcelain market is very strong right now, and it's driven by Chinese tastes.

And this is something that I think would appeal to just a multitude of potential bidders and buyers, collectors who are looking for exactly the sort of ceramic at auction today in 2021.

I would put perhaps a conservative auction estimate of 80 to $120,000.

And I really and it's under my bed all the time.

I think under the bed is not such a bad place to keep this.

It's been kept beautifully and it's been kept safely that overwhelms everything I must say, it's an absolute masterpiece.

I don't know what to say.

I think you've kept it very well for so long.

It's in very good hands.

I'm so pleased you on this.

I feel like crying Oh, it's just the look on her face.

It's like.

Marcia, what a surprise that that Chinese charge of all the quality and the value and that it was just under the bed.

And even the appraiser thought it was very exciting to see a piece like that and to think of how many hundreds of years old it is that it's been under a bed in a box all this time, and it looks like it's brand new, for heaven's sake, because it was in that box back up, like, brand new.

I know.

I think I think our experts really can give us give up, make us notice why to care.

Let's face it, without riches born to help.

Many of us would walk right by that charge and not know how rare and special a piece it is.

And you learn about that stuff basically one object at a time.

I'm here to tell you this.

So when when he walked by that and saw that there.

How how did he not tip the owner off and go and just kind of.

And she goes, oh, I might have something.

Because the reactions of people watching Antiques Roadshow are genuine.

So how do you keep all that value excitement?

Surprise a secret from the owner Well, I can tell.

I only answer.

First, I want Ali to answer how she keeps her tempers, her excitement, because we've talked about this many, many times.

Well, we never give anything away.

When we pitch something for TV, we just ask the TV.

The guest know, I think I'd like to pitch this for TV.

Do you have some time?

Would you like are you interested?

And the other the guests will usually say yes.

And then I'm always very careful because I make my guests sit in a little special place and I make the guests put it back in the box so that no one walks by giving an opinion because we want it to be real when the real reaction when we're on camera.

So we're very careful and because Marcia has always warned us not to be leaky faucets That's because I say this with great affection.

Arlene and I are good friends in addition to being colleagues.

And so I say this with the greatest of affection to me as a total geek.

And like all the experts we work with, about 150 of them, and they get excited, so excited that what you see is real.

When you saw Legg Mason cry because he saw a team down as he lined those with real tears I mean, he's that much of a geeky cry.

I haven't seen Ali cry because she loves something so much yet.

Well, this should all be I could see the excitement when she was looking at that at that Tiffany Shade.

I mean, you were restraining yourself a little bit in that shot, I think, weren't you?

A little bit.

But I was I was very excited.

But I'm allowed to be excited on camera.

I haven't cried.

You're right, Marcia, but you know, there's another 20 years in me, so we'll see what happens.

People The leaky faucet expression is because they can our experts can get so excited when somebody comes over, they can say, well, how the 17th century.

Do you mind waiting for a producer?

And we don't like that.

Can't get laid out of the bag.

That's.

And so most of our appraisers have learned not to let the cat out of the bag.

Right.

And kind of walk by and go, oh, we've seen a dozen of those So when when something is I think you touched on it when you were going into your intro segment about how the show is produced about about the fact that a lot of people, when they find out that they've done something, an heirloom, a piece for so long and it's so valuable that they don't end up selling it.

But I still thought it was kind of funny, oddly, when that Tiffany Shade, when you told her how much that was going to be worth and she went, that's good to know.

It's like even she was calm about it.

And I think it's I think it's wonderful that people have these things and they have as a as a part of themselves for so long and that they don't sell them, that they keep them close to their hearts.

That's nice.

Very often the items we see are the people bring to Roach our long time old family objects that have come down in the family.

So we see yard sale pics and treasure hunters and we see people who bought things and are hoping they didn't pay too much.

But a lot of what we see are inherited items and they mean a lot to people so we've seen people with inherited items who like the black and the very famous blanket that we've appraised that we lived in a trailer he had a financial need and he sold it.

But most of the time when you see very valuable things sold, it's because they have a need or it's because they have three children and they don't have to split it or some other some other need like that.

Otherwise they want to keep it in the family and hopefully they have three good things.

So each kid gets something because that's really what you see.

And even if there is always a cost to sell, even if you do it online, buy yourself as a commission so the day you sell it, you can't afford to buy it back.

Alley has a couple of stories where she had sold a couple of things, but not much for all your years of doing Roadshow.

Not much.

Not much.

Yeah, well, there's going to be.

I'm sorry.

No, no, go ahead.

Is Marcia said in her intro, most people are more interested in getting insurance appraisal so that they can protect the items.

And I've seen that happen more often than not with people with whom have done appraisals.

You see that a lot in the show that they want to know.

Okay.

It's worth 3000.

What what I what I insure it for.

And of course, you want to insure it for more.

There's been some questions that have come in before we got underway.

And one of them is from a lady named Barb Bloomberg, and she is from Tamworth, which is halfway between here and the Omni she goes second, her words second to getting on Antiques Roadshow.

How can one find the best person to help figure out the history and provenance of a beloved family heirloom?

I have several objects that my maternal grandmother inherited from her family, the Harrisons, including a book from 1869, describing the journey made by Joseph Harrison Jr to Russia to help build a railroad.

I believe several unusual objects were sent or brought home by Harrison as gifts that she wants to put the items together.

But the first thing I think for me and for the audience is what is the provenance?

As I say it, right?

The provenance of of an object.

Is it just the history?

It's the history of the piece, you know, where it originated, who owned it?

Was it passed down through a family?

Was it bought at a very prestigious world exposition on all kinds of things like that.

And a lot of people in their families have kept records of those things.

Not the but but the other thing.

But sometimes there is a lot of hearsay.

And you have to in order to improve a lot of times in order to improve the value of the piece, you have to really pin down the provenance and prove these things.

It's just can't be based on family history.

Yeah, because stories get passed around in families.

And we played that game before where just the simple gets turned around by the time it goes around the whole party.

Exactly.

And we have that happening a lot of times, even with Tiffany, when people come to the side of the table, Tiffany is really used as a generic term, referring to any stained glass window.

So these lamps have been passed through the families and they were told if they were Tiffany's and they're sometimes very surprised when I have to tell them that they're not.

And but and so I always use that telephone story actually at the table just to make them feel better.

If, you know, someone said this and the next person said this.

And by the time it got to me, it's not even anything that the person looked at.

The original owner said exactly what was the other part of her question was how how can she best advice to gather these items together to be judged know I think it depends on what she wants to do with them.

But ultimately she should contact an expert.

And what we do at Roadshow technically, by the way, is a verbal approximation of value.

And when you get an appraisal, which is something you would use for insurance, which is written document, some of our appraisers don't buy and sell, but all they do for a living is appraised.

So you would want to consult an appraiser to start with to seek to dip into that.

And just because she has a wide thing like that and we have to go to our website, we have books, documents, appraisals that you could look to.

But sometimes even in your local community, an auction house or an antique dealer may have a discovery day where they're looking at items and look for that.

And it's a free glance first to start.

But ultimately to nail down if jumps in there looking for value along with the provenance.

They know some of the provenance.

They are part of it.

They own it now.

You know, provenance is part of the custody of ownership like that, too, because let's face it, sometimes it matters who owned it.

If I owned a harmonica, and Elvis Presley owned one or, you know, it matters, you pay more for his versus mine.

Yeah.

So that kind of stuff, all matters so because she has such a wide thing, I'd start with a proper documents expert and see how they could help you.

Good advice.

A viewer, Ronald Traylor, has a question, too.

He has a numbered print that may or may not be a so-called Depression era art.

He can't make out the artists who signed it.

He acquired the work about 40 years ago, took it to an appraiser a few years ago.

But that appraiser couldn't make out the artist's signature either, but indicated that the work might have been produced in WPA programs to assist artists.

And his question is, how does one determine if the work is WPA?

He understands that the U.S. government claims ownership of such works and is making some efforts to take them in I actually wrote to Tom Wyman, who is one of our experts, who works for someone who deals with Princeton documents, to ask him this question because I didn't know the answer and he answered me like an hour ago.

So I will tell you what he says.

WPA works are subject to government confiscation and it does occasionally happen.

They actually got a painting confiscated from auction, but it generally happens with original works and not prints So it depends on what you have there.

The GSA, the government, the General Services Administration does oversee the WPA items.

I'm not sure exactly what this person has, but they should be WPA runs.

They should be able to look that up.

And again, an expert can tell you more if you can't find.

That's why people come to Rochelle if you find it online.

And our experts know the answer is no.

Get yourself a ticket to road show and see what we can tell you.

But other than that, the experts that we work with are all on our website, too.

Excellent.

Another question, this kind of harkens back to these three episodes and the third one we're going to see today.

I'll just remind anybody just joining in that the Marsha and I are going to stay on and be able to chat with you during this third episode of Antiques Roadshow that was taped at the Omni Mt.

Washington Resort.

But excuse me, did was there anything else you learned from from doing the show at that location?

Anything new Well, you know, what I did learn is that I learned a lot about the Omni.

Now I'm the Boston girl, and I grew up around here.

And I grew up skiing in New Hampshire.

Yes.

And and I haven't been to the Omni.

And, I mean, you know, doesn't everybody go to the Park Railway, all the Boston kids go up there.

So it's been a little while since I was up there.

And so much has happened with that hotel I was really surprised to see how much has been renovated.

And the last time I was there, I was a young person without the ice to appreciate what I was seeing.

Like, you know, everybody should have a porch, like, march to their houses, don't you think?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Funny that you said that because I was thinking about it, too.

And, you know, I grew up in Portland, Maine.

It's a two hour drive to go to Mount Washington.

And I definitely went there as a child.

But I really didn't appreciate it.

And coming back as an adult and viewing it through adult eyes, I was just pulled over by the beauty of New Hampshire, and I appreciated it way more now than I did as a young child.

So I was so delighted that Antiques Roadshow could take the Omni.

It was so beautiful.

And it was a great it was a great visit for all of us, not just take it.

Oh, that's nice.

There was a question that just came in from Vicki.

She wanted to know, how do you decide what items get accepted?

Is the story behind is it the story behind the item?

Is it the value?

Is it the uniqueness of the item?

Thanks for that.

Thanks for the question.

Vicki.

Story is king.

Ultimately, you have seen Christmas tree top was worth 25 bucks on roadshow till ultimately story is king But let's face it, we're human beings and we're tantalized by something that's extraordinarily rare and valuable when we're running around, which is how it happens most years.

And what we did this year with the letters to really what we're looking for is with the slogan for Antiques Roadshow is Discovering America's Hidden Treasures.

And we're making a television show similar to you don't know that you're learning stuff while you watch Roadshow, you watch a season of Roadshow.

You didn't learn when war happened, you weren't listening.

But we're going to make it fun for you to learn.

And we want the person who's objects being appraised to learn, too, because we want engaging in television.

So we don't want to show a shell.

So we don't want you coming in with the eye on your let's say that same Tiffany, she came in and the owner had paid 100,000 for everything about it.

She was Azhar Ali wouldn't have pitched it because there's no story for there's not anything for her to teach the guest at this point except the updated value.

So maybe we do a quickie of that.

If that's not so interesting, I don't know anybody else that they can put it in the chat and tell us, do you want to watch, show and tell for rich people on the show?

This stuff not so much.

No.

So we love that's one thing they do.

Is there something for the owner to learn?

Something for the owner to learn?

Because conversations are great television and that's and and then the rest of it, when we talk with a guest, sometimes I have interviewed people who are just so darn cute in their 90 and so don't you then I'll put them on television so there's it's okay yeah yeah yeah I can yes actually once in Philadelphia many years ago and I literally said to the producer when I was pitching, I said, you know, the piece is not that exciting, but this woman sounds like Katharine Hepburn and I really think you should put her on TV.

And she did it.

She was great.

She was running out of Philadelphia story awesome.

There's another question that has come in our lead.

Do you have any advice on where to get a possible?

I hope I, I say this right.

Groovy bass upper.

It was appraised g r u e b y groupie and also in Boston.

Yes.

And also, she wants to know if you collect Tiffany lamps yourself.

Two part question.

Okay.

Well, we'll first we'll do the groovy.

And I think this is a situation where I would definitely go to the Antiques Roadshow website and go down the list of the appraisers who specialize in pottery and porcelain because I'm sure any one of them could help.

And yes.

Do I have Tiffany lamps?

Yeah, maybe a few.

But, you know, I also have this very lovely collection at the store, so I get the benefit of being here every day with surrounded by lamps.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Wonderful.

What was the most valuable piece that you bumped into while you were at the at the Omni Hotel?

Oh, well, 100%.

The the chandelier that I appraised that was.

Yeah, the shape that was coming.

So that I would say I was doing those types of things don't come around very often.

No.

You know, this question is from Joan Dallimore.

Joan, thanks for watching Have you ever been really surprised by a guest or antique Yes.

I, I think I'm often still stunned by what the antique story will tell me.

It's not even the value.

Just the stories of objects will tell us about history.

And that still stuns me.

And I am endlessly fascinated by owners.

They are sweet.

They are curious.

I have seen the same exact look in an eight years old eyes when it comes to road show.

Everybody is eight years old, vulnerable, were curious.

And it's a lovely, sweet moment.

It's the best of humanity out there.

Can you tell me about my little thing?

And I'm really curious and I don't care if it's worth only $10.

I'm just so excited to meet you.

Ali Silke.

And it's that kind of thing that it's a joyous day, even without that big money there.

It's a joyous time.

We're perfectly privilege.

It really is.

And although I've been making the show to all this time and Ali, it started before me, season three.

It doesn't get old.

No pun intended because people are never endlessly surprising.

Endlessly surprising.

Are there areas of the country where different, different types of items show up more often than others, like in the Northeast?

Do you get colonial items?

And in the Southwest, do you get items from indigenous populations or things like that?

Is it a regional kind of an amalgam of items?

And we should talk about that, but definitely we use a call calling Fisco saying good stuff has fee, so good stuff, we'll move around.

But things often sit where they were made.

And Ali, you're seeing that thousands of objects all the time as we tour around.

And what do you know?

I'm very surprised.

Many times I expected to find Tiffany in certain areas and nothing has walked through the door the entire day.

And it ends and also, you know, we've gone to some places that where Tiffany was sold back in the turn of the century and nothing's come in.

And actually, one of my colleagues at the glass table, Kathy Bailey, always said says to me, particularly when we were in northern care of California, she always talks about earthquake country and that people don't have good glass up there.

Now, I hope that's going to be different this summer, Marcia.

But but but my experience in Northern California has that we have not seen Tiffany just doesn't come in there, but it does in Southern California.

So they're a little less concerned about the earthquake situation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, good stuff has feet.

I'm writing that down.

Yeah.

Good thing.

I have a question from Lenore, and she's watching and wants to know, can the guests sell items at Antiques Roadshow?

The appraiser has mentioned they could not purchase that item.

Are there other buyers present is going to go through the deal?

You are fired for asking the question.

Not kidding.

That's how much we are buying and selling around our show.

It is unethical for anyone who is appraising to offer to buy your item.

It is just a conflict of interest.

And I tell anybody who has something great, if you have something you want to sell, it's like selling your house.

Talked to three real estate brokers, talk to three types of dealers.

She's a dealer.

She's going to auction your price to buy it in a fair price.

You put something up at auction and it's a high priced item and it doesn't sell you.

But that item for ten years, you can't sell it.

So you have to be strategic.

It's not always obvious about how to to to sell something.

It's a tricky it's tricky.

I forget the question.

Did I swing off base?

I don't know.

I kind of forgot it after I got fired for asking not you know, it's really interesting and I do want to point this out.

We don't know the last names of the people who we go on camera with.

We only know their first names if they want to contact us after we've left town, gone back home, that's okay.

But we are never to make any kind of overtures about buying anything.

And we are we all play by the rules.

And it's a very good rule.

Marcia.

It is.

It is a good rule.

And and and if anybody didn't play by the rules, I would know about it before the end of the day.

It's that it's a verboten thing to do.

We allow them to put their business cards on a table, which people who less and less now because everything so digital.

But we do at the exit and they're on our website and some times the best person to sell your item is one of our experts who don't want to get in the way of that.

But we certainly don't want anything happening on the day that we're evaluating the item.

Now, earlier, Arlie said she does have some Tiffany, but she's surrounded by it at home and at work.

So Helen Fogerty would like to know Marcia, after all these years of doing Rochelle, do you collect anything?

I don't collect like a collector who's focused, you know, I focus collectors do teapots or miniatures or whatever they do, but I've learned to like certain things.

So when it came time to redo my living room, I had to have a busload of kids.

Do I, like, suddenly, like, modern?

Do I collect my daughter?

No.

But I really like the look of that stuff.

And if I ever bumped into a nice painting of a Jacobsen or a one of those that didn't cost an arm and a leg, I would buy it.

And that's old.

So it's it's just about what I like.

And my walls are pretty full and my walls are pretty full.

So I put a I'm not a collector like collectors.

I've met collectors.

And if there's a collector out there listening to me and and Ali knows collectors, she's not a sheet, are you?

Do you consider yourself a collector or is your husband and more of a collector?

He's more of a collector, actually.

Yeah, he is actually a collector, yes.

Because I buy with the dealers right now.

It's like, well, if I buy this, I probably could sell it in a few years if I got tired of it.

Whereas in these into the long haul, and that's him as a real collector and focused on a type of thing, I that's a real collector.

A real collector collects little one rappers or silver or, you know, they can be really that's the kind of collector when I think of a collector anyways.

And by roadshow world, I'm not I collect stories.

I'm collecting your stories.

Everybody loves stories.

Everybody.

So yeah, I have I have a another last question really for both of you is how did you discover your love of antiques?

How did you discover it?

What what was it that lit your fire for what you do you stay right is a very simple story.

I was an art history major in college, and I knew I wanted to be in the art world.

And I came to New York and I just I got a job at a very small auction house, and that's actually where I and I came to work for her in 1980 and I think my passion, I always loved art, but I was able to really focus on what on this period.

And I learned that I loved it very much and that I had an aptitude and I have the, the memory so that if I saw something one day and then I saw it the same piece three weeks later, I knew exactly what it was or if I saw something that looked like this, then I knew it was by the same artist.

And it just grew into a love of what I do.

But I have to say now that I only really innocent, I only have things that I love in the store and it's much easier for me to be enthusiastic about what I have if I love it.

Very nice.

Marcia, what what started you on this road?

Show you what it is, is that I'm a TV junkie, and so I like to make television and I love to the capturing of footage.

You know, I love coming home after we capture the footage and having to edit it and make it work.

And I love thinking about how we're going to capture it.

And inadvertently, about 20.

What is this little or a little over 20 years ago, the then executive producer asked me to come do Antiques Roadshow.

My children were very young and and now my children have children.

But they were very young then.

And I didn't.

Was Gun-Shy about committing myself to Antiques Roadshow?

I do a lot of travel.

When you have a young mother and so I reluctantly decided to do it and then, oh, am I lucky?

This, this is my, my, I have children, but this is my, I have a baby, and I love what I do.

I love the show.

I'm so glad I tried it on.

I know a danger is amount about antiques thanks to Ali and her colleagues.

But in order to buy and sell and really know what you're doing in this world, you have to be doing it every day, all day.

It's a hard and tough thing to do.

They make it look easy.

It's not.

And so I could not buy and sell.

And being in this full time, I know who to call and ask the right questions, too.

And I once asked one of our experts, I said, I know now how to tell the difference between a $5,000 bureau and $50,000.

I could see the difference, but how do I know the difference between like a $50,000.01 and a quarter of $1,000,000.01?

So if I were ever going to pick it, sell it, how would I know what to do?

You know what his answer was?

Go to a lot of using.

I know you are trying to develop your eye to that level.

Of what you see our experts doing that have been doing for decades.

Even a young man or woman on Antiques Roadshow, expert if they are that young, have been doing it since.

You can't see how well my hand is to the floor here.

Their parents who are in the business, they went to the strip and stroll ers.

They developed it young and they learning they started morning young.

You need some time to be able to cope just sitting at that table that day with what's coming in and not you can't look everything up and your colleagues, you wouldn't be pulling your way.

So yes, I've been making this show for over 20 years, but I could not sit at one of those tables.

No, I could not let them go.

They need us and we need them.

I don't see you sitting still either one of you.

So I guess I say it's like, where's, where's the rest of season 27 going Marcia?

Oh, where is the rest?

You mean where are we going?

When we go out this year?

Yes.

So so we will going to wait, wait.

Let me get to my list of cities that I had already for me here, and then it disappeared.

Okay.

Where we are going this year, we are going to see what estate and gardens in Nashville, Idaho, we'll tackle Garden in Boise and the dates on there.

I won't read them because you can see them.

And then on June 14, Santa Fe Museum Hill in Santa Fe.

And by the way, if you've been to Santa Fe, I've been told to get there a day early because it is higher than the Mile High City.

And you need to adjust the altitude, too.

And they were going to Woodside, California, in a place called Pronounced by Lonely.

And then our last stop is the the Shelbourne Museum in Vermont.

And here is the deal, folks.

If you want to apply for tickets to come to Shelbourne, you have until 1159 to night Pacific time to apply and the ticketing deadline happens to be today that happens to be within driving distance so apply to come to the Shelbourne or in one city if you happen to be going to California or or some other trip is in your aligns with our dates or you want to make them align with our dates apply apply to come to one of those cities but by 1159 Pacific time you can apply after that so jump on it.

Yeah Marcia and Arlie, this has been wonderful.

It's just the two are so charming and so fun and so dedicated.

It's been a great hour to learn about the background of how these shows all come together each week.

And I want to thank you for your time and your generosity on the crew as well.

You've really given us quite a glimpse into how antiques Roadshow happens.

Hope you both had a good time oh, thank you.

So.

And in the meantime, you can watch Antiques Roadshow episodes on Passport.

Very easy.

If you haven't activated Passport yet, it's easy.

Just go to NHPBS.org/ Watch more.

And of course, you can watch Antiques Roadshow Monday evenings at 8:00 here on Nature PBS And finally, thanks to our new PBS Insider series, supporters couldn't do it without a Pony Automotive group.

First, Scotiabank, Spank Silverstone Loving and New Hampshire Humanities.

Thank you and enjoy the show.