On the road again

Treasures roll into Little Rock for Antiques Roadshow event

I have a confession to make. I am an Antiques Roadshow junkie.

I know who the Keno twins are (but I can't tell Leslie from Leigh). I have a slight crush on Wes Cowan. And I love the New Jersey accent of Kevin Zavian. For Roadshow virgins, these guys are appraisers.

So when I heard the PBS show was coming to Little Rock, I immediately entered the lottery for tickets. And not just in my name. I also applied under my mother's name, other relatives' names and anyone who said they would give the tickets to me if they won.

I know the tricks. This isn't my first Roadshow.

And I won the right -- in my own name -- to attend the July 25 Roadshow at the Statehouse Convention Center. The following is my Roadshow story.

If you win the Roadshow lottery, you get two tickets and you and your guest are each allowed to bring two items to be appraised. I took Cary Jenkins, my friend and co-worker. We were lucky -- 14,000 people applied and only about 3,000 won pairs of tickets.

Antiques Roadshow gave me permission to interview anyone I wanted to, with one exception: I could not ask last names. And the reason was pretty good. What if you had an $80,000 Elvis Presley jacket and your name was in the newspaper? Bad stuff might happen to that jacket. (More about the Elvis jacket later.)

Our appointed time was 11 a.m., but we could arrive 30 minutes early -- and we did. Barbara Pryor greeted us at the door. Former Arkansas first lady Barbara Pryor. She was a

volunteer.

We spent a good part of the day in lines. The first line was just the line to the escalator. That line took 28 minutes. In that line, I met Margaret and her daughter, Alexa, from Scott. Margaret brought a 1976 Gibson Explorer guitar that she used during her days in the rock band The Offenders. She said she played everything from punk to Jefferson Starship.

These days, Margaret looks more like a mom than a punk rocker, but I could kind of see it.

Margaret would later tell me her asymmetrical guitar was valued at $6,000 and the appraiser said only two were known to be available for sale. Margaret, I could tell, was a tad disappointed that she wasn't filmed for the show.

Next, we entered a room where the lines snaked back and forth. A man greeted us with "You made it to the end of the line. Welcome."

We spent one hour and 17 minutes in that line and I used the time to meet people and look at their treasures. First up was Maribeth from Athens, Texas, who was toting two paintings she bought at an estate sale.

"If they are worth a million dollars, we are going to buy one-way tickets to the Caribbean and we aren't telling our husbands," Maribeth said of her friend Vanessa.

A call later found Maribeth not in the Caribbean, but at home in Texas. One painting was worth what she paid for it, $300. The other $4,000 -- $2,800 more than she paid, a nice return on her investment but not enough to run off to paradise.

Vanessa brought 30 toy guns which caused the appraiser to take a step back from the table. Her father worked in the plant where they were made. Value -- $175 to $200 a piece.

Then there was Robb from Ward. He had an enormous brass lamp that he believed dates to World War II and came from North Africa. I ran into him later in the day and he said the lamp appraised for $1,500 to $2,000. He seemed pretty pleased.

Eric brought a large photo and slide collection of jazz musicians that he inherited from his grandfather. According to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette photographer John Sykes Jr., Eric did not look surprised when appraiser Laura Woolley told him it was worth $50,000 to $75,000. The collection includes signed photos of Billie Holiday, Nat "King" Cole and Louis Armstrong.

The Elvis jacket sighting happened just as we were entering the triage area -- the place where someone looks at your stuff and decides which appraisers to send you to.

One of my new Roadshow friends told me that a guy had an Elvis jacket at the front of the line. I hurried up there, and sure enough, Mitch had a cream-colored jacket with a stand-up collar and gold patches on the pockets. And he had a photograph of Elvis wearing it. (I got the impression that the jacket, at one time, was white. Mitch said he has let lots of people wear it.)

Elvis wore the jacket at a 1972 concert in Las Vegas. Elvis threw the jacket into the crowd and Mitch's dad caught it. After John took pictures of Mitch and the jacket, I couldn't resist. Could I try it on? Sure, Mitch says.

And I did. And Cary took a photo, which, of course, I posted on my Facebook page. But not before I texted it to everyone I could think of in that giddy moment. Oh, and John tried it on, too. Thanks, Mitch!

Later in the day, I found Mitch just as he got the jacket appraised -- $30,000 to $80,000. But Mitch fessed up that the jacket belonged to his dad and the Roadshow appraiser would not put him before the cameras. The rules say the object has to belong to you to be on TV.

"I had a suspicious mind," Mitch said when asked if he had any idea the value. That Mitch was a card. Oh and Mitch said he is open to taking offers for the jacket.

After Elvis left the building, I turned around and saw U.S. Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), standing at a table waiting to be filmed. I guess I can use his last name since he is a public figure and all. After the filming, Boozman said he brought a brass clock his father bought in London when he was stationed there during World War II. The elder Boozman had a thing for antiques, the senator said.

Boozman found it in a box in the garage, covered in dust. Turns out, it is a very early example of a clock dating to the 1670s. It was appraised for $7,000 to $10,000. And no. He is not selling it.

Some local celebrities and PBS supporters were allowed to go to the front of the lines. I saw Sissy Jones of Sissy's Log Cabin ushered to the front. I guess she deserves it since she is a regular sponsor of Antiques Roadshow.

Boozman said he didn't get any special treatment and got his tickets just like everyone else. And he said he stood in the lines, just like everyone else. One more thing to note: He brought the clock in a U.S. Senate cooler.

"It wasn't me that got on the show, it's the clock," he said.

The most expensive item appraised in Little Rock was a 1730s-era George II cabinet on a stand. Leslie Keno appraised it at $80,000 to $120,000. I wish I had seen it.

For the record, the 70 or so appraisers are all unpaid volunteers. They even travel to the different Roadshow events on their own dimes.

The Little Rock event will become three hour-long episodes that will air on PBS some time in 2016. The exact dates have not been determined.

And yes. I had stuff appraised. The silver candelabra that I thought was sterling but was actually electroplated -- $100. My grandmother's cameo brooch -- also $100. But the photo of me wearing Elvis' jacket -- priceless.

Sunday Digest on 08/23/2015

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