Dig This Treasure!

The rumors are true.  Dig This Treasure was lucky enough to snag some press passes to the Detroit stop of Antiques Roadshow.  If you’re not familiar, Antiques Roadshow is PBS’ highest-rated ongoing primetime series, in which guests are invited to bring their dusty old treasures in for appraisal.  The show is best known for surprising antique owners with high-price valuations for items the owner believed to be worthless.  

The Detroit event had 28,922 ticket applications, with only 6,000 tickets being issued.  Each attendee is permitted to bring up to two items for appraisal, which meant that over 10,000 appraisals were expected this day.  Which also meant, long lines…

Luckily, after checking in at the media area, we were escorted by Roadshow aficionado Peter, who whisked us right past the 2+ hour wait.  (Sorry everyone!)

They call this first waiting area –yes, it’s only the first–triage.  Once you get through triage, you must show your appraisal items at this table:

The Roadshow person working here will decide which category of item you’ve brought.  There are 22 categories.  I asked Peter if there is a sort of “catch-all” category for items that don’t fit into the other categories.  Kind of like ebay’s infamous “Other” category.  Surprisingly, Peter said no.  I assume this means that Antiques Roadshow has seen every sort of item under the sun, even the weirdest of the weird.

Peter had us pull out our appraisal items.  All three of us (me, Sarah, and photographer extraordinaire Zach) had items in the Toys & Games category.  I also had some folk art, and Sarah had some jewelry.

After getting a category ticket, guests approach a line of Roadshow workers.  They are there to guide you to your next line of waiting.  Here, you will wait to meet the Roadshow appraisers (of which there were 70 at the Detroit event).

All of the appraiser tables are arranged in a circle.  This is by far the most chaotic, and yet most interesting, part of the Roadshow.  The lines are pretty haphazard and we heard lots of tales of line jumpers.  At the same time, this is the best area to scope out what other people have brought.

Don’t worry!  We will have a whole entry tomorrow on other guests’ items.  Anyway, this waiting area was also the best place to see all of your favorite Roadshow appraisers.  They are hard at work looking at each item, researching it if necessary, and then calculating their best price estimate for the item. [Fun Fact: All of the Roadshow appraisers participate on their own dime!  The exposure is good for their appraisal businesses.]

We stepped up to the Toys & Games appraisal table.  I had brought a weird sort-of-taxidermy toy horse that I bought last year at a Brooklyn, NY flea market.  I knew that it wasn’t worth very much, but I was super curious as to how old it was.

Appraiser Julie Scott figured the horse wasn’t really that old, perhaps only a few decades.  She also humorously said that it looked like the horse had its “neck smashed down with a hammer” because it wasn’t anatomically correct.  The horse was in fact made with real horse hair, and Julie explained that the very best and oldest toys like this one are made from fetal horse skin because the hair lays nice and flat.  My horse was made from an older horse.  Julie also suggested that the horse may have come from Mexico.  In the end, she said it was worth about $45, which means I definitely overpaid (I bought it for $70).  Whomp whomp!  I still love this weird little guy and his gnarly neck.

Zach had brought a box of his lead soldier collection.  Julie seemed much more interested in these toys than my horse.  She began to rummage through the assortment.

The soldier on horse above was estimated to be from the turn of the century.  Zach also bought this at Brooklyn flea last year.  Julie said it was worth about $50, which is exactly what Zach paid for it (the seller originally had $150 on it).  In fact, a few of Zach’s soldiers were worth between $35-$50 each.  The more common ones he had were about $10 each.  

Julie liked the soldiers, but was clearly more interested in the lead Santas that Zach had.  She said that his large skiing Santa (made in the USA) was from the 1920s, and his sledding Santa was from the same time, except from Germany.  Each were valued at around $50, which is great because we got them for way, way less.

I’ll let Sarah go over all of her appraisals.  She had one at the Toys & Games table too, and after that, we headed to the Folk Art appraisal area.  I had brought my coveted whale tooth scrimshaw to be examined.

We walked up to the table and lo and behold, there was Wes Cowan from PBS’ History Detectives!  I told him that we were big History Detectives fans, and he kind of chuckled at that.  Otherwise, Wes was all business.  I pulled out my scrimshaw and he asked me what I knew about it.

I explained to Wes that the tooth was supposedly from the 1920s, and supposedly from a MSU Zoology professor’s collection.  I told him how I bought it at an antique festival, to which his eyebrows sort of raised.  

Wes then proceeded to essentially “school” me about my scrimshaw being illegal.  The problem here was that my scrimshaw was indeed on a real sperm whale tooth.  Most scrimshaw nowadays is on plastic fake teeth.  You see, in 1973, sperm whales became protected, and the selling of their ivory was banned.  Only ivory, and thus scrimshaw on real ivory, that is at least 100 years old can be sold legally.  Wes had serious doubts that my piece was that old.  In fact, he couldn’t really tell how old it was at all–just “not that old.”

I had secretly feared that my scrimshaw was illegal when I bought it, but had held out hope that it wasn’t.  I felt like a real bad kid getting caught smoking outside of school or something.  I felt like Wes Cowan himself was ashamed of me.  This didn’t stop me, however, for asking how much this illegal scrimshaw was worth.

Turns out that the appraisers cannot appraise illegal things.  That would be like me taking a giant bag of cocaine up to Wes Cowan and asking him how much the going street price was on it.  Wes did eventually reveal to me though that if a dude came up to me in an alley on Cape Cod, opened his jacket and had illegal scrimshaw, he would probably want “a few hundred dollars.”  Fair enough…at least if I illegally resell this, I’ll make a profit.

After our appraisals, we got a peek at some of the actual TV show taping.  The way this all works is that everyone who attends Roadshow gets an item or items appraised, but not all of these appraisals are on camera.  Producers are flagged down by appraisers when a particularly interesting item comes up to the table.  The item’s owner gets whisked away to hair and make-up, and the appraisal ends up being filmed on a tiny set near to the appraisal tables.

The individuals chosen for filming are super lucky!  Only about 50 appraisals are filmed, and remember, there were about 10,000 appraisals done this day!

After peeking at a few of the filmings, we caught up with some Roadshow attendees to ask all about their items and how their appraisals went.  Stay tuned for all of that goodness! 

-Erin 

Update from Sarah: Ok, so I knew nothing about Antiques Roadshow before this trip, so my mind was a little blown. First off, I’ll just say THANK GOD for Erin. She is so good at talking to strangers. Here’s proof:

That was about 30 second after meeting Peter the tour guide. Look! They’re already BFFs!  I know this is poor quality but I had to share. Pictures on iPhone were prohibited except for in the triage area, so I took a couple of pictures while I was allowed! (After the triage area, we had Zach as our pro photographer, so thanks to him!)

Anyway, Erin’s excellent at talking to strangers and I am not. She kept whispering things to me that I should ask during my appraisals, and asking if she was talking over me. Heck no! I don’t do that well in crowds of people in big open spaces like that–my eyes dart around and I have no idea what to look at–so I was just trying to keep cool and calm while there were 8 zillion people around.

Oh also, one other thing–I felt REALLY BAD about getting to skip that insane triage line. But also very grateful! You should take another look at how crazy it was. 

Oh well! Guess everyone just has to deal with it when there are world famous bloggers in the hizzy. 

Here’s the first item that I had appraised:

That adorable bunny that you see is Bunnykins, my dad’s stuffed animal from childhood. My dad gave me Bunnykins before I can even remember–I’ve had him for what seems like forever, and I’ve always kept him on my dresser. I love him. But I don’t know anything about him, so I thought I’d have someone give me the lowdown. 

Julie Scott (I just wrote Jill Scott and then remembered THAT’S A RAPPER) also did Bunnykins’ appraisal. 

She looks a little pissed here, but rest assured, she loved Bunnykins. I learned a few things about him. He was made after WWII–probably around 1952 or 1953, which makes sense. He’s also not made of mohair, which I thought he was. He’s synthetic. But she did say that dressed bunnies are very collectible, and that he is VERY cute. True dat. Also, he’s worth about $90. Even with his to’ up feet! 

The second item that I brought with me was a diamond ring that I inherited from my mother-in-law, who passed away two years ago.

It was her grandmother’s engagement ring, and it is absolutely gorgeous, and I am blessed to have it. She wanted me to have it in case Adam and I ever had a daughter, so that it could keep getting passed down. I got it appraised the year she gave it to me, and I just wanted to know more about it. This baller, Kevin Zavian, did my appraisal and he sounded like a true New Yorker. 

He told me that it looked like it came from the early 1900s–between 1910-1920, and that it is interesting because the prongs/setting are platinum, but the band is 14k gold. Usually platinum is matched with 18k gold or higher. He thought that maybe the band was added later–possibly in the 1930s, meaning the top was probably originally on a necklace or brooch. He also told me that retail, it would probably run about 3K less than what it appraised for when I got it appraised! Oh snap!

This disappointed me at first, but then Erin explained that an insurance appraisal is different than the sort of appraisal he was doing. Also, he estimated the number of karats in the ring incorrectly, and I only know that because of the previous appraisal. Anyway, it was fun to talk to him about the ring but he sort of made me nervous with all of his do-dads and special eye pieces. Also, him and Zach bro-ed down about watches. Apparently, Kevin is a “watch guy” so it’s his favorite thing to appraise. Cool enough! 

Stay tuned for more exciting Antiques Roadshow tales! 

This past weekend, our husbands were busy finishing up a record they’ve been working on for over a year, so Erin and I were orphans. Clearly this meant that we had to find more opportunities to blow our money on old sh*t. We succeeded in this mission.

A few weeks ago, I had read about this Antique Expo that was going to be happening in Southfield, so Erin and I decided to check it out on Saturday morning. 

On our way there, Erin had speculated that this event might be a little too baller for us, and she was right. It was a huge event with lots of different dealers and collectors, and things were priced much higher than you’d find at an estate sale.

Luckily, there were a lot of rich people perusing the displays, so the sellers were in luck. Erin and I aren’t rich, but we don’t exactly look like we stepped off the set of Newsies either… 

…so I’m not sure why we were so consistently ignored at the various booths.

I mean, little did they know that one of us will pay some fat cash for the right piece of porcelain. AND we each had to pay $8 to step foot in the joint… so c'mon!

Anyway, we walked around and looked at stuff while people ignored us. There was some really cool stuff at this expo, but unfortunately, my pockets were not deep enough to buy most of the stuff that was interesting to me. Here is a table that I was coveting: 

It looked cooler in person. And that peace sign isn’t part of it. But anyway, it was $500. 

Here is a leather rhino that Erin was coveting: 

He was about $900. [Edit from Erin: The tag clearly says $850.]

In the end, I bought some old overpriced postcards and photographs from this person: 

…as well as some old metal stamps for Adam that I forgot to photograph. 

Some other cool things I saw:

A bird mansion…

and a collection of miniature books. 

Erin ended up purchasing a piece of scrimshaw from a smooth operator. I think it’s illegal to sell ivory or something. Hence, the title of this post. I’ll let her tell you more about it. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: It’s true that people treated us like vagabonds at this sale, which is such a bummer and awkward.  Oh well.

It is also true that the stuff at this show was pretty baller.  The leather rhino that Sarah mentioned earlier is a SUPER RARE piece sold by Abercrombie & Fitch in the 50s/60s. People go mad collecting these, hence the crazy price.  I only knew what this was because Zach has been coveting a similar elephant for forever.  

I was empty handed until the end of this sale, when I noticed a piece of scrimshaw tucked away in a showcase.  This particular piece was a sperm whale tooth with a scrimshaw whale design.  It has been a dream of mine to own some real scrimshaw, but it is really really expensive…not to mention illegal if it’s whale.  Since 1973, it is illegal to sell whale ivory, unless it is an antiquity (over 100 years old).  You still see scrimshaw on elk bone and replica whale teeth, but most authentic whale bone scrimshaw is in museums or personal collections. 

The seller told me that he bought the piece from a zoology professor at MSU downsizing his collection.  There was no price tag on the piece, so he quickly spouted out that he would take $150 for it.  I got him down to $140 and was thrilled.  I think I got a mega deal here, since REPLICA scrimshaw sells for that much on ebay.  

And at a Nantucket scrimshaw gallery, pieces sell for over $1,000.  My piece is definitely not as old as those super high-priced pieces, but I do think that $140 was a steal.

I went home and made a cool wood stand for the tooth and am now displaying it proudly.

Ok, and before anyone gets hot and bothered, I am a Whale Wars fan.  That said, whaling used to be an important necessity, and the culture of whalers is fascinating.  I’m not down with the modern day hunt for endangered whales, but I am SO DOWN WITH THIS OLD SCRIMSHAW.  If you have any, hit me up ASAP.  I’ll pay porcelain prices for that shiz.

-Erin