Appraiser takes us inside the Antiques Roadshow

A few years ago, my auction buddy Janet and I put our names in a lottery to get tickets for the Antiques Roadshow’s stop in Atlantic City. We waited and waited for the email telling us that we had been chosen.

We both love auctions, and attending one of those popular shows would be the ultimate experience for us. We never got the call, the Roadshow came and went, and we could only see the Atlantic City show on TV, watching as others took our spots and showed off items that couldn’t match the treasures we had tucked away somewhere in our closets.

Little did we know that we were among the gazillion folks not just from our area but around the country who also wanted tickets. I learned that much during a presentation over the weekend by one of the show’s appraisers, Don Cresswell, co-owner of the Philadelphia Print Shop since 1981. Cresswell told about 35 of us that people fly in from all over to be on the six shows held yearly in June, July and August.

That was only one of the revelations that Cresswell offered in his insider’s view of the Roadshow, on which he has appraised antique prints and maps for 12 years. He and the other appraisers – the Roadshow lists more than 180 of them on its website – do not get paid for their services or reimbursed for their expenses by WGBH, the Boston public television station that manages and produces it. What they do get is free publicity for themselves and their companies – which is probably even more lucrative.

Cresswell isn’t the only one dissecting the show. The website offered its own questions and answers and executive producer Marsha Bemko wrote an insider’s guide in 2009.

The soft-spoken Cresswell answered the most commonly asked questions about the Roadshow, interspersing them with anecdotes. At the event sponsored by the Germantown Historical Society in Philadelphia, he also participated in a Roadshow-type panel of experts who looked over our items and offered historical information about them.

Here is some of his presentation:

When is the show coming to my city?

“Probably never,” he said honestly. Your city needs a convention center with 8,000 to 10,000 square feet of space on any given Saturday to accommodate the large number of ticket-holders. When the show came to Philadelphia in its first year in 1996, he recalled, “hardly anyone came. It was foreign to most people. Now it’s huge.”

How can I get to go to a Roadshow?

Through a lottery where, if chosen, you get a timed ticket. It didn’t start out that way: First, it was first-come, first-served, and not a lot of people showed up. Then it became so popular that people would line up two days before. He recalled a Baltimore show where 12,000 people turned out and police had to direct traffic. The line wrapped around the building twice and then across an interstate highway into the downtown area. He said 5,000 of those people didn’t get in.

What happens when you arrive with your ticket?

You stand in line, then check in. Someone connected to the show looks over your item. Some folks bring weapons for appraisal, so firing pins are removed. One person brought a live grenade once, and the bomb squad was called in. Then you are sent to a table of experts based on what you brought. And you stand in line again. “It’s a maximum experience of waiting in an airport,” Cresswell said. “You see the things people bring and you talk to them. People just love that. It’s a wonderful part of the experience.”

How do people get big furniture in?

People send in photos of the furniture before the show, and the producers decide what’s good. The Roadshow crew picks up 15 to 20 pieces and sets them up on a stage. Cresswell recalled seeing families lugging big pieces of furniture to the show.

What does the setup look like inside the big hall?

Table are arranged based on specialties – with two to eight expert appraisers per table – that include historical prints and maps, paintings (2 tables; people bring in a lot of these), books and manuscripts, furniture, musical instruments. About 60 to 80 appraisers are on hand for each show, and their day starts at 7 a.m. and ends around 8 or 9 p.m. “It’s exhausting,” Cresswell said. He loves it, though. “It’s a wonderful experience,” he said. “I’ve been to places I would never have gone to otherwise.” The best city? Grand Rapids, MI, which had the “nicest people.”

How can you get on TV?

That’s up to the appraiser and the producer. WGBH produces three one-hour shows in each city and about 60 to 70 people are chosen. Cresswell chooses people based on three things: If the item is interesting, has value and the owner is “presentable for TV,” meaning the person looks and talks well. Some people want to be on TV, some don’t. “I don’t tell them the worth (of the item). I want to save it for the on-TV reaction.” If the person says yes, he calls over a producer who makes the final decision, and the person is taken away to be readied for the TV appearance.

He told the story of one “darling” couple who brought in a folded Revolutionary War-era letter from Dr. Joseph Warren asking the local militia to allow Paul Revere passage without interference. The letter was a lithographic reproduction that had likely been folded inside a book. The couple agreed to go on TV and Cresswell broke the news to them there. “It was a way of teaching a lesson,” he said. In another case, a woman had an authentic and valuable four-page atlas from the 16th century, but she wanted no part of TV, figuring that Cresswell only wanted to embarrass her. Perturbed, she flat-out asked him what it was worth. With the answer, she said OK to TV, but it was too late.

Do people get angry when they disagree with the appraisal?

Yes, they do. “All are not nice,” he said.
Once Cresswell finished, the audience had questions:

What has been the overall accomplishment of the Roadshow?

It has saved a lot of artifacts in America. Dealers say the show has become their enemy because everyone thinks their items are valuable.

What research is done on the floor by the appraisers?

The show provides a cart of reference books and appraisers have access to the internet. But most importantly, they all are experts who have been doing this for years.

Can appraisers solicit people to sell their items independently?

Not on the show. “If I gave (someone) my business card, they’d kick me out,” he said. You can do it later or if someone approaches you. In general, he added, “you don’t buy something you formally appraise.”

Does his firm benefit from him and fellow appraiser and Print Shop co-owner Christopher Lane being on the show?

The first day after they appear on a TV episode, they get 40 telephone calls, and then it fades. They get invited to a lot of antique shows. “You’re famous,” he said. “You touched the Keno twins.” Leigh and Leslie Keno are popular appraisers on the show.

What are some of the most common items brought to the show?

Among prints, it’s mass-produced tourist art (which is of little value). He recalled one show where a number of people brought in a print of the Shroud of Turin, mentioning that when hung on the wall the eyes followed you.