Antiques Roadshow is coming to Minneapolis in July, and I applied for furniture with 4 items. Surprise! they selected my Saarinen Grasshopper chair and ottoman (even though it was recovered).
They have never had a Grasshopper on their show before, and visually, it IS quite a 'far out' design that might very well make good television.
I'm not sure it'll get on TV, but I'm am going to have it picked up at the end of June and we'll see.
I'm also going to bring my 1971 Vlavianos ashtray, which weights nearly 8 pounds and is solid metal (he's a Greek sculptor who has major outside work displayed in Brazila, and at MoMa, too).
Wish me luck.
No, actually
It simply the kind of item that I'd like to see shown and talked about on Antiques Roadshow. It was nice to see something modern in furniture...like that Nakashima table last year and the Roycroft and Stickley furniture that shows up from time to time.
Not all of the people who bring items that get televised are unaware of the value of the item they've brought.
My Saarinen Chair is not for sale anyhow, but I thought that it would make for good television, and a modern alternative to some of the frothy French late 19th century copies of 17th century porcelian.
Oh, and tynellbuyer, why you're spewing a bit of venom, you might want to know that I paid about $350.00 for it on eBay 5 years ago, and paid to have it professionally repaired and recovered.
I did not pay 15.00 for it at a flea market, and I see as a way to get tickets for the show. Must you be so superior and negative?
Good luck!
It'd be fun to see the chair on the show.
I need to apply for when they're in DC again. I have an old, old staff of some sort, very worn, probably South American and probably 500+ years old, whose purpose no one has figured out yet. That includes Skinner Auctions and some curators of one of the big Danish history museums and Mr. Google. TV is my last hope.
I'm with
I'm with Tnel - it's always a let down on the show when the appraiser says "now, have you had this appraised before" or "do you know anything about it" and the person clearly has done the research and had the appraisals.
It's much more fun watching the person with the "funky" chair discover that it's a Finn Juhl.
Barry
Please try not to be thin-skinned or take everything personally when someone replies to your post. I think the snarky tone of tynelbuyer's response came from their distain for the falseness of most "reality" television. I don't think that they were criticizing you personally. Or maybe they did not mean to sound cynical at all and were just trying to be humorous.
However, I do think that the question tynelbuyer asked is a valid one. If you had an item that had stumped the design addicts here on the forum and took that in to try and find out more about it, I could certainly understand. But I don't know why anyone would go to the effort to take something that they know the complete history and value of unless they wanted to sell it and thought that the exposure on TV would make it more marketable or if they simply wanted to appear on television themselves.
I understand that a lot of people want to be on TV. It seems like an exciting thing. I've been on television and radio a few times myself and I can honestly say that it's not that big of a deal. If you have a strong sense of modesty like I do, it's actually kind of embarrassing. You don't exactly look like you do in the mirror, and have you ever really listened to your own voice? I did a radio show in college and would refuse to listen to the sound-check tapes. Hearing my recorded voice makes my skin crawl. But maybe that's just me.
Anyway, I think it could be an interesting opportunity if you have something that you really would like to find out more about (and not just the monetary value, to me that is the least interesting aspect). I have watched the show "History's Detectives" on PBS and found it very compelling how they do research and find out things that are as interesting, if not more so, than the item in question. If I were you, I'd be rooting around in the back of the closet and the bottom of drawers to see if I could find some obscure item that I had no idea about or might actually stump the "experts". Good luck on the program.
Yeah I've watched this with...
Yeah I've watched this with my parents, they enjoy it but the presenters need to drop the pretense, sometimes the people who bring things on are...well I hope you won't be like that Barry.
The older pieces and the occasional bit of technical information is good.
Its not just you pegboard, I think I sound like a cross between Kermit the frog, Stephen Fry and a cursing sailor with
tourettes.
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