Product Description: The national treasure hunt, Antiques Roadshow is, in its third season, the most popular show on PBS. Every week it draws millions and millions of viewers to the edge of their seats as independent dealers and specialists from the country's leading auction houses appraise family heirlooms and flea market finds alike. Now this knowledge, authority, and passion is distilled in the Antiques Roadshow Primer, an introductory guide to American Antiques and collectibles.
Antiques Roadshow has taught us to look for fortunes in our attics--perhaps to find, as other lucky souls have, an Anna Poole Peale portrait miniature worth $5,000 to $7,000 or a Confederate sword worth $35,000. Focusing on 11 major areas--including Furniture, Painting, Silver, Jewelry, Porcelain, and Toys--the primer addresses the essential things buyers and collectors need to know, covering vital details for each category, such as shapes, styles, and patterns, provenance, periods, and motifs. A 32-page full-color section amplifies each chapter by illustrating numerous examples of styles and techniques, and individual items are fully identified, often with their appraised value. Above all, it helps even first-timers to answer the two key question every collector must face: Is it old? Is it valuable?
Amazon.com Review: The simple but brilliant attraction of the popular PBS series is that deep down inside, everyone wonders if that family heirloom or flea-market antique in the corner of the living room has any real value. Antiques Roadshow Primer can help you answer that question. Carol Prisant, who writes about antiques and collectibles for Martha Stewart Living, House Beautiful, and New York, quickly notes in her introduction, however, that this is a primer--an introduction to the basics of antiques--and does not presume to make the reader an instant expert.
In that vein, the focus is on the bread and butter of the antique world: silver, glass, pottery, porcelain, books, paintings, jewelry, rugs, clocks, and furniture. These are the items that are not trendy (Barbie dolls, 1920s beaded bags) and subject to massive fluctuations in price and value. Instead, Prisant points out, they are the types of items that are good for the long haul and, she notes, the front hall. So how do you determine if an heirloom is worth something? The following tips are offered when inspecting furniture: run your fingers underneath or over the back of the piece--very sharp edges and corners indicate recent manufacture. Remove one screw in some inconspicuous spot. An old, handmade screw will have irregular widths between the spirals, running the whole length of the shaft. The slot in the head may be off-center. Look for the distinctive curved pattern left in sawn wood by the teeth of a circular saw--it is one important sign of manufacture after 1840.
Prisant also reveals tricks of the trade for inspecting diamonds: place the gem against your upper lip, she advises. If it's glass--the oldest imitator of a diamond--it will not feel cold at all, while a real diamond will. Definitions are also offered for "antique furniture" (any object 100 years old or older, according to the U.S. government), "used furniture" (secondhand furniture less than 100 years old), and "period furniture" (made when its design was first popular and new; generally the most valuable of antique furniture). At its best, Antiques Roadshow Primer instills a sense of genuine interest and enthusiasm, much like the PBS show, by making the antiques and collectibles world less of a stuffy discussion about an untouchable item behind lock and key and more about drawing connections to the heirloom in the corner. --John Russell
Before you price you need to know what you are looking at. You have seen the program. Now read the book. Reading this book gives you a better insight as to what an antique is and what to look for. The program is ok but you can not take it with you or unless you own the video you can not go back on a point. There is a small color section. But for the most part the pictures for the descriptions are black and white. There is a section on "Art Glass" however not enough detail to tell the difference between amberina and cobalt. The title includes collectibles also. And the different furniture styles. I could not find anything on "Lebus" furniture.
All in all this is the place to start. Before looking for price guides you need to know what you are looking at. However you will need to branch out from here. There is an extensive index and lots of photos. There is a list of Auction houses, appraisal organizations, and Antiques Road Show appraisers.
If you love Antiques Road show your gonna love this book. If you love the Antiques Road show you will love this book! It's packed with Beautiful full color pictures of the antiques that made the show such a hit, and the stories that go with them.
There's even profiles of all the antique dealers that have been in the show since the beginning.
ROAD MAP Really a fun read, on a very unique show. Frankly, what I love most about the show is when somebody thinks they have something so valuable and it's fake, they are so smug, then shocked, it's priceless to watch them recoil. They should get this book and they might learn how to spot a fake. Honestly, those two weird twins on the show freak me out, they are so bizarre looking, but those two ecentric fops really know american antique furniture and their expertise is honed in this book. But seriously, if you enjoy the roadshow or just want to know more about antiques then I do recommend this book
Or, if it's under 20 Grand don't bother... Antiques Roadshow is an enigma. It is at the same time one of the most informative shows on television and one of the most misleading. This book is quite similar. The information presented to help identify styles is very good overall, although there are some serious shortcomings in certain sections. However, this book also includes the ubiquitous "Find" featured on the show which gives the reader an unrealistic expectation of the value of what they may own.
Also featured in the book are sections on items which are "out." In many of those sections I found items which sell quite well in our local market as well as online. It seemed that the decision to call something "out" was made solely on price issues. Invariably in this work the items which bring sums over $1000 were mentioned while hot collectibles & antiques that can be had between $50-$500 were either left out or barely touched upon in the text.
I use this book as a reference for styles, periods, and such, but I do not trust their market research any more in print than I do on TV. ....and I'm a professional appraiser.
Great reference book for a great show. I received this book for Christmas, and though I'm not an antiquer, I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It has provided lots of great background for me as a writer, as well as being entertaining. Antiques Roadshow is the most popular PBS series for a reason. If you love it, you will love this book!
Anything Goes Trivia
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