Sunday, March 9, 2025

I Attended the PBS Antique Roadshow!

 

Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

Last year, my daughter and I were excited to hear that the PBS ANTIQUE ROADSHOW was coming to the Denver Botanic Gardens in the Chatfield Farms extension in Littleton Colorado! To attend the show, we entered a ticket lottery and kept our fingers crossed that we would receive tickets. Happily, my daughter won two tickets! Naively, we thought we would be sitting in an audience like many of the television shows we attended in New York, but when the tickets arrived we were told we had to bring an antique for evaluation to be admitted. That led to a search throughout our possessions as neither of us collects antiques, and we did not think we had any valuable family heirlooms. Finally, we both found something we thought might be interesting and looked forward to attending the show.



The day of the show taping was May 29,2024, on a beautiful spring day. The TV airing of the show will begin this month.

From their website: "Part adventure, part history lesson, and part treasure hunt, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW marks its 29th season in 2025. A 22-time Emmy® Award nominee and former Critics' Choice Award-nominee, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is PBS's most-watched ongoing series!"
 

The location was perfect!

It is managed in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is a 700-acre native plant refuge and working farm located along the banks of Deer Creek in southern Jefferson County. Chatfield Farms is home to historical buildings dating back to the 1800s, 2.5 miles of nature trails, and numerous wildflower gardens.


When we arrived there was already a long line of people waiting to enter.


When we entered the grounds we saw that tents were set up throughout the farm, serving different purposes.



We entered a triage tent where we showed the items we brought. We were told what categories our items were classified as and were given a map to show us where to queue up next. 



We waited in the "Decorative Arts and Silver" line, as I had an object determined to be of that nature. The line was very long and it took us over two hours to slowly advance to the tent. Many people had umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. We enjoyed seeing what items others on the line brought and conversing with those around us. In a few instances, a film crew took videos of the line and asked us to cheer for the camera.




All the QR codes displayed on the placards are still functioning if you'd like to see the information they lead to on the ANTIQUE ROADSHOW website.




We were finally close to the appraisers' tent!





This is the object I brought to be appraised. It is an Eastern Orthodox religious icon that once belonged to my maternal grandmother, who had immigrated from Ukraine in the early 1900s. Although it is a dear possession for me for that reason, the appraiser unfortunately told me it did not have great value otherwise. 



Guests with interesting or valuable antiques were directed to various filming locations where they would be interviewed and told by another professional appraiser what their items were worth. That is the most exciting part of the televised show, to see what treasures were discovered, and how much the experts said they were worth!




The next line my daughter and I waited on was "Sports Memorabilia," and, thankfully, that line was much shorter!




This is what I brought--a signed photograph of  Mickey Mantle, a famous New York Yankee Baseball star from 1951–1968. When I was twelve years old I wrote a fan letter to Mantle, as he was one of my favorite baseball players and I was thrilled to get this photograph as a reply. I kept it all these years! The appraiser was a very nice man who was from the NY area and he liked the photograph very much, but he told me that there are many "fraud" photos and other signed things in the sports memorabilia world. And that I needed to have to signature authenticated through a service such as Beckett, experts in doing this.  He said with certification I could probably sell it to a collector if I wished. My daughter brought her collectible, a Yankee Baseball player Derek Jeter's rookie card, and he gave her the same advice.



My daughter and I were happy to have had the experience of seeing how the PBS ANTIQUE ROADSHOW was conducted and viewing many of the wonderful objects that others brought to be appraised, As we walked toward the exit we spied a lucky someone being interviewed under the trees. The episodes showing the Antique Roadshow in the Denver Botanic Chatfield Farms on Littleton will be aired on PBS on March 24, 2025-hour one, and also on March 31, hour 2, and April 7, hour 3. To see a slideshow of photos from the Littleton filming on the ANTIQUE ROADSHOW website click here.

23 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Hello Pat,
What a fun event ! Just the experience having your objects appraised. It would be fun to be interviewed on on the TV show.
Take care, enjoy your day and have a great week ahead.

Tom said...

...what fun, we watch the Antique Roadshow every Monday! We'll see you on the 24th.

EricaSta said...

Wow, what a great event. Wonderful to be part. It's Monday afternoon, it's raining outside and therefore it's a good idea to write comments...

Impressive pictures and a wonderful trip. I was very happy to accompany you again, dear blog friend. Thank you very much for your wonderful contribution to MosaicMonday.
Have a nice time! Greetings from Heidrun

NCSue said...

It looks like you had a great time checking out the treasures!
Thanks for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2025/03/some-more-photos-from-philadelphias.html

Lowcarb team member said...

The TV show Antiques Roadshow is very popular here in the UK too.
I enjoyed your post and photographs, thank you.

All the best Jan

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

What a neat experience! I know you enjoyed it with your daughter. That would be the only way to go! Thanks for sharing!

Joyce said...

What fun! A friend of mine and her husband have a large collection of antique clocks. They were on the show a few years back and learned the clock they brought was quite valuable. So exciting!

Laura @ Our Grand Lives said...

This was such a fun post to read! We've always loved watching Antique Roadshow and it was so neat to read your "behind the scenes" viewpoint. Thanks for sharing!

ellen b. said...

What a fun experience that was. Glad your daughter won the tickets!

Barbara said...

What an interesting experience!

Jeanie said...

It's lovely to step behind the scenes with you. I really like the series -- there's always something interesting or fun or kind of amazing and I love the stories behind the objects. I learned something new about you too today (your Ukrainian heritage!). For as many years as I promoted the show to our viewers, I never had the opportunity to participate so it was very fun to follow you on your journey. It looks like a very well oiled machine.

Joanne said...

That sounds like such a neat experience!

Barbara Rogers said...

An interesting post...out of the ordinary blogger topics and most fun to see/hear about what you all brought to the Roadshow.

Jim said...

That's great.

Spare Parts and Pics said...

What an awesome experience! That's such a fun show. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Life Images by Jill, Western Austrlalia said...

I've seen bits of the Roadshow on TV from time to time. How interesting to go behind the scenes! An experience despite the crowds. One never knows when something one has might be more valuable than we realise. But a treasure passed down through family is still a treasure. Enjoy your weekend ahead. I am joining you at Thankful Thursday.

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

That's pretty cool. I used to watch the show all the time and I haven't seen an episode in a long time. I loved all the inside info that the experts had and enjoyed seeing how some people took good news or bad news in stride about their treasures.

Jocelyn said...

What a fun experience!

Rambling Woods said...

wow..that must have been fun...Michelle

Photo Cache said...

I love Antiques Roadshow! I am so jealous that you were able to go. I hope someday I could do the same.

Worth a Thousand Words

Mari said...

Thanks for stopping at my blog!
We love Antique Roadshow and I think it would be so fun to be a part of it. Even though your items weren't one of the big finds on the show, I'm glad you were there. Now we'll have to watch it!

Light and Voices said...

Looks like you both had fun at this event. Memories together are priceless.

NandiniDeka said...

lovely...thanks for sharing your fun experience