Antiques Roadshow comes to Raleigh, NC

Posted by Jenny
One of our favorite television programs is Antiques Roadshow which airs on our local PBS station. It’s so much fun to see the unusual items people bring on the show to learn their worth. Plus, I admit to having a strange fascination with the furniture-appraising-twin-wonders, Leigh and Leslie Keno.

For the longest time I didn’t pick up on the fact that they are twins. I would resolve to remember “that furniture guy’s” name only to be confounded when on the next episode his name suddenly was “Leslie” instead of “Leigh.” Then we happened to watch an episode where both twins appraised the same piece of furniture at once. As the dynamic duos cavorted across the screen flipping over tea tables,my brain seized up and the gears had a hard time getting back up to speed. After making sense of the chaos we were witnessing, David and I made the connection that the Keno twins reminded us of Xamot and Tomax, the dashing and debonaire gymnast/business executive twins from the G.I. Joe cartoon.

Except, of course, the Keno twins are really nice guys who would never be part of an evil underground terrorist organization designed to take over the world.

Needless to say, when we found out Antiques Roadshow was coming to Raleigh, we knew we’d be there. We applied for tickets as did many of our friends and relatives, but we’re the only lucky ones we know of who actually received tickets from the random drawing. What can we say? It was meant to be!

That only left us to decide what to bring along to have appraised. For me, a natural choice was to bring my violin. I knew it was old when my parents bought it for me around 1996 but the date wasn’t written inside as is customary. I also know it sounds good- as do a lot of people around here who frequently offer to buy it from me at jam sessions (sorry folks, it’s not for sale.) There’s also a bit of mystery to the violin’s value. My violin teacher had facilitated the purchase of the instrument between my parents and the seller who owns a local guitar shop. After talking with my parents and learning that I liked to play bluegrass music, the seller was more than happy to reduce the price by several hundred dollars. Which has always left me wondering- did he really give us a deal, or was he planning to over charge us to start with? What is the real value of the instrument? Of course to me, it’s priceless and I’ll never part with it- but as is usually the case on Antiques Roadshow with sentimental items, how much should I insure it for?

David’s natural choice, since we were already taking one musical instrument, was to take along his mandolin banjo, affectionately dubbed “the manjo,” which was given him by his- shall we say “unique”- Uncle Duane. We’ve had it hanging on the wall in our living room. The manjo needs a replacement bridge and there are some structural problems which makes playability difficult.

That left us each with one additional item we could bring. I brought a pair of lithographs belonging to my mother. The lithographs depict the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary and were found rolled up and hidden inside a chimney in Germany where they were hidden from Nazis and pillagers during World War II.

My mom was living in Germany in the early 1960’s and admired the lithographs in a friend’s apartment as the land-lady happened by. The land-lady offered them to my mom in exchange for 2 cartons of cigarettes and that’s how they came home with mom.

Since I was bringing something of my own as well as something of my mother’s, it seemed fitting that David do the same. He brought what we refer to as “the noodle cats.” They are two ceramic cats from Italy, the likes of which we have never seen elsewhere before. Their heads are painted with black stripes and green eyes and red mouths, and their bodies are covered with hundreds of small bits of clay pulled up to resemble fur- however they remind me more of hundreds of small pasta noodles the way the squiggle across the cat bodies.

So we had our items ready, we had our tickets- all we had to do next was…. wait. When June 27th finally arrived, we made the hour drive to Raleigh and arrived at the time according to the time on our tickets. There were roughly 5,000 people there to receive appraisals all day but the timed ticket system made things run very fluidly. As many people as there were around us, everything was exceptionally orderly and ran very smoothly.

After lining up according to the time on your ticket, when your time is up, your line then joins the main line flowing into the appraisal area. You make a stop to pick up tickets according to the categories your items fall under. So we had 2 musical instrument tickets, one posters & prints ticket, and one ceramics & pottery ticket. After that, you enter the appraisal area and join which ever line you wish to join first.

We started out in the musical instruments line and luckily it was pretty short. We only waited there approximately 15 minutes before receiving our appraisals. While we were waiting, one of the Keno twins entered the appraisal area and said “excuse me ma’am” to a woman waiting in one of the lines winding out that way. When she realized who he was she shouted “oh my God!” and grabbed his arm as she place her other hand on her chest as if to catch her heart before it ran away. You could tell they were both embarrassed after that- he strode away with a sheepish smile and she fluttered beet red for several minutes thereafter. When it was finally our turn for our appraisal I couldn’t help but find something either very British or very Keno about our appraiser. I later discovered that he is Mitchell, the older brother of the Keno twins. Apparently appraising is a family business for them.

We learned that David’s manjo dates from the 1920’s. Mitchell confirmed that it is unplayable due to warping over time. So, at least we can save money on buying that bridge! My violin is a good quality student violin worth about what was paid for it- so now I know the original price was a bit steep. It also wasn’t as old as we were originally lead to believe- it dates to about the 1920’s rather than the late 1890’s and is possibly American since “Made in France” was written in English. That doesn’t change how I feel about it, though!

According to the ceramics appraiser, the “noodle cats” “scream of the late 1940’s or early 1950’s” and aren’t particularly valuable. Neither are my mom’s lithographs- although they are older than we thought. They date to the late 1800’s, but since religious art is typically mass produced for churches that reduces the value.

So everything we took with us was worth about what we expected it to be valued at, but even though we didn’t come away millionaires like the lady who had four pieces of jade valued at over $1 million and broke the record for the highest valued item on Antiques Roadshow, we had a great time. It was a lot of fun seeing all the items other people brought, watching them as they taped the show and interviewed guests, and of course getting to see the Keno twins!

We did stop in the feedback booth at the end of the event, so there’s still a chance you might see us on TV one Monday evening at the end of the 8:00pm show. Look for us with the noodle cats! We were actually in line behind the woman in this video clip with the plantation bed, but you can barely see David’s head sticking up above another man’s head. http://www.news14.com/content/local_news/triangle/611266/antiques-roadshow-shatters-records-in-raleigh/Default.aspx

It was June and it was Hot

Posted by Jenny

“It was June and it was hot.” That’s how our favorite pirate song begins. It also sets the stage for our latest trip to the hunting lodge. But even the sweltering heat didn’t stop us from making new friends- or keep us from playing music with old friends.

Dale's hog. Don't feed it chocolate cake.

Jammin'

The barbecue chicken was finger-lickin’ good to the bone as was the harmony of a traveling troupe of gospel singers who stopped by. We didn’t catch their names but they were friendly folks and a talented group.