AKRON, Ohio — "Antiques Roadshow" rolled into Akron Tuesday, setting up across the grounds of Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens to uncover the hidden treasures of the Greater Akron area.
"Antiques Roadshow" is an hour-long PBS show in which antique experts offer free appraisals for collectibles and heirlooms viewers bring with them to the show.
More than 28,000 people applied for free tickets to the Akron event, show organizers said. Only 2,000 tickets were awarded, with each ticket holder able to bring along a friend. Each attendee could bring two items for appraisal.
And they brought items in droves — attendees arrived carrying their antiques and heirlooms in bags and boxes of every size. At check-in, attendees were assigned categories for their treasures, which they then took to the appropriate station, which roadshow organizers call “triage.”
With more than 60 professional appraisers on-site, triage comprised 23 different appraisal areas organized by category, from jewelry to textiles to musical instruments.
Every appraiser working at an "Antiques Roadshow" event is a volunteer, and many of them have been with the show for years, said Demee Gambulos, "Antiques Roadshow" director of brand marketing and audience development.
Kerry Shrives, an appraiser at the Boston auction house Bonhams Skinner, is one who has volunteered every year since "Antiques Roadshow" launched. A generalist, Shrives said she is especially interested in decorative arts and sculpture, although she is knowledgeable about many categories of antiques.
From time-to-time viewers bring items to roadshow events that stump the appraisers.
“That’s actually a lot of fun because my colleagues will get together and we put our heads together, to decide how old we think it is, where do we think it's from and what we think it was used for,” Shrives said. “Kind of crowd source it.”
During the event, the appraisers can flag specific items to be filmed for the show by alerting a producer about an unusual item or an item with an interesting story, said Gambulos.
The producer speaks with the appraiser and the attendee to hear the story and determine if it would be interesting or educational for "Antiques Roadshow" viewers, she said. If so, the attendee and the item are taken to a “green room” to wait to be filmed.
At that point, the attendee doesn’t know the appraiser’s thoughts about the item, she said.
“The first time that the actual conversation between the appraiser and the guest about the item happens is when the cameras are rolling,” she said.
Executive Producer Marsha Bemko made the rounds during the event, checking in at the various stations, meeting and speaking with attendees and gauging whether the event was going smoothly.
Bemko said she had come across an attendee who brought four Fred Rogers postcards to be appraised, three of them signed by Rogers. The woman said the cards were in a box of cards she bought at an auction for $1 because she wanted a valentine that was in the box.
An appraisal revealed the cards are worth more than $1,500, Bemko said.
“I like that story because it's in the PBS family,” she said, referring to the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood show, which aired from 1968 to 2001, and on PBS in its later years.
Three episodes of "Antiques Roadshow" filmed in Akron will be aired on PBS in 2024, in the 28th season of the show, organizers said.
"Antiques Roadshow" is PBS’ most-watched ongoing program, with about 6 million viewers watching each week in 2022, according to PBS. The show has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards, as well as other television awards.
