Public television’s Antiques Roadshow seems to be a furniture maker’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Both prime time television shows have became popular beyond all expectations, both feature average Americans who appear on the shows and walk away with newfound wealth, and both allow the rest of us to participate vicariously.


Now in its third season, Antiques Roadshow is a traveling production which visits cities across the country and in Canada. At each stop, local residents buy tickets which allow them to bring in one of their attic treasures for a free appraisal. The most interesting objects are selected for filming, and appear in a short segment which includes a brief interview with the owner, a discourse by the appraiser on the class of objects and the object itself, and, in culmination, a (sometimes) dramatic statement by the appraiser of the estimated market value of the item.

Antiques Roadshow’s equivalent of “Is that your final answer?” is the question “Do you have any idea what this object is worth?” Usually the answer is “Gosh, I don’t have any idea at all.” The estimated value is often (but not always) more than one might expect, allowing the owner to return home with a new found sense of wealth.

Free appraisals of furniture are not new in the popular press. Many magazines have monthly columns which feature mailed-in photos of furniture and collectibles along with a valuation and an explanation by the appraiser. Magazines offering this type of write-in advice include Metropolitan Home (“Dr. Swatch: What’s your treasure worth?”), Classic American Homes (“Collectibles”, by Dorothy Hammond) and Art and Antiques (“Queries”). In a recent month’s sampling, these columns featured a tall case clock ($3-$5,000), a Chippendale chest ($25,000) and a William and Mary highboy (sorry, it was a machine made reproduction, worth only $1,200 – $1,400).

Antiques Roadshow has taken this format to a much wider audience and made it popular even among non-collectors. In the process, public television has done much to foster a greater awareness of furniture, decorative arts, connoisseurship and furniture conservation.

During each show, the appraisers’ presentations provide brief biographies of key furniture makers, discussions of the various furniture forms, and explanations of the finer points of each piece as they relate to the object’s value. In addition, the producers often visit museums and cultural institutions in the host city and tape interviews with museum curators. A recent segment included a visit to Connecticut’s Hartford Athenaeum and a discussion of the renown furniture collection of Wallace Nutting, which was given to the Athenaeum by J. Pierpont Morgan.

In addition to the strong educational component of Antiques Roadshow, there is also a personal side. Each object tells a story, and it is the job of the expert to explain how to “read” that story. But along with the objects, the collectors each have a story to tell. They may describe a distant relative who traveled to China, or a grandparent who left behind a seemingly worthless object. Others tell of their family’s country of origin and the connection which has been preserved in the objects handed down from generation to generation.

These stories are the heart of Antiques Roadshow. They illustrate the associations and meanings that are embedded in one’s belongings, as well as the emotional connections which can be made to furniture and decorative arts objects.

If one could suggest any improvement for Antiques Roadshow, it might be to add a segment each week in which a previous visitor is contacted a year or so after his or her initial appearance. “Did you sell that table?” they would be asked. “Did you get the $20,000 the expert said it was worth?”

There would surely be more interesting stories to tell. Some might describe what they did with the money, but others would answer no, they didn’t sell the table. After all, it belonged in the family and it was too valuable to be sold. Antiques Roadshow is fun because you get to see what all that old stuff is worth. Antiques Roadshow is also fun because you get to see that it doesn’t really matter what all that old stuff is worth.