Antique Roadshow

The Antique Roadshow was a highly organized event. My 9:30 a.m. tickets were the second wave, with a new round of 700 tickets every 90 minutes. A fast moving queue, considering the crowd, gave me a chance to see other people’s treasures as I inched along. Each person was required to bring a minimum of one item and two maximum. Staffers worked a table outside the appraisal area issuing markers for each item category (mine was glass). An usher led me to the correct appraisal tables.




I got out my candlesticks and the sugar bowl and ran through my spiel, “family history has this bowl coming around Cape Horn”. I mentioned I’d been told the candlesticks were signed at which point the appraiser said she wanted a more knowledgeable appraiser to look at these things. I’m thinking, “All right, I’ve got real treasures!” So next stop is a gap-toothed portly fellow with one wandering eye who I’ve seen on TV. I repeated the Cape Horn story. He replied that stories about family pieces are often embellished. Hmmm, not a good sign. End result: the sugar bowl was made around 1910 with an inferior grade of glass, which is why it is turning pink. It probably sold in a dime store and is currently worth about $40.




However the candlesticks, circa 1920, were deemed a lovely example of (not signed) pressed glass, and currently worth $250 - $300, a nice increase on $20 spent in 1972.

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