[piano intro] [upbeat jazz music] ♪ - Hello everyone, and welcome to the beautiful North Carolina Museum of Art.

We're going to take you behind the scenes today for a look at the iconic program, "Antiques Roadshow".

Thank you for joining us.

I'm David Crabtree.

- And I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and as you can see right over my shoulder, lots of people gathered.

They've been here since, I think, six o'clock this morning with their wares, hopefully to get on the show.

But there's a process to that, right, David?

- There is a process.

Part of it is finding out what's real and what's only real to the owner.

Appraisers are here from around the country to listen to the stories of people, to take a look at their items, and then make the decision.

- We're gonna show you a little bit about what we are doing, what "Antiques Roadshow" is doing, and what the people are doing as they approach, come through the lines, meet with that appraiser, possibly land on the show, learn about their piece, and just be excited about the day and being here.

- And there's some wonderful stories.

Let's take a look.

[upbeat music] - But this is such a slice of Americana.

- It is, it is.

- And condition is astounding with that decal.

- Everybody who's coming tomorrow wants to know the same thing we all wanna know.

Tell me about what I own.

[gentle music] - Well, they sort of matched it up, you know, there was- - So tell me about this treasure.

- This right here is a chest that is dated 1771.

I actually found it at an auction in Baltimore, Maryland.

It was mislabeled, and as soon as I saw it, I was like, "I have to have it."

So, it's beautiful.

- It's mislabeled.

What was it labeled as?

- Just a regular old chest.

And it said, like, late 1800s.

And then I saw, like, through some of the photos that it said 1701 or 1771, I was like, "I have to have this."

- 1771, so you have to have thought about the hands that crafted this.

- Even driving down here today, as like, I was coming down, I kind of thought about, this is probably the furthest this has traveled since it came to America back then, you know, from Baltimore all the way down here today.

- [David] Well, it's quite impressive.

- Thank you.

- Good.

Good luck to you.

- Thank you, thank you so much.

- Nice to see you.

- So I understand you've already seen someone, but what was your process like?

What time did you guys get here, and how did you end up at the table?

- We got here right at 7:30, and then we had to go through a triage, where they sort of tell you which table to go to with all of your items.

And so this one belonged to the doll table, so that's where we went.

- You've got a nice Number 5 Barbie with her original hair set, and you can see how really nice, that ponytail is still in good condition, and tagged Barbie Clothes.

And then we've got Ken, an early model of Ken, and he's her boyfriend.

And of course, later on, you could buy the wedding set, [chuckles] so they did get married if only in your home, but get married.

Again, he is in labeled clothes, early 1960s.

She's much different than Number 1 because she's much lighter.

If we pick her up, she's got a hollow core where the early, the very early Number 1, 2, and 3 had a solid body, was really heavy.

- And what did you learn about these dolls?

- This is a Barbie 5.

They're a little different than, say, Barbie 1, because the bodies are not totally hard.

They're more plastic.

- Oh!

- And they're lighter weight.

- I've never seen a doll like that in person, but I absolutely had Barbie dolls growing up, and I just loved those dolls.

Did you used to play with these?

- Oh, no, I didn't.

She found 'em at- - These are your dollies.

- I got these at a yard sale.

- [Deborah] [laughs] Okay.

- I realized what I had, and I put 'em up.

So, the girls had their own Barbies.

- Were you surprised at what the appraiser told you about these dolls?

About their value?

- A little bit.

Yeah, a little bit, yeah.

- I was.

- Were you?

What did they tell you?

- [Owner] 350 to 550.

- Wow.

Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- Are you going to keep this or sell it?

- Yes, I'm going to keep it.

It's hanging in my formal living room right now.

- You know, it's kind of a crab.

[upbeat music] [people chattering] - People are really hungry to learn about their family, learn about how something came into the family, learn about why this document is important to more than just their family.

- Just curious about what you brought, and I was told there's a great human interest story in this story.

- So, our great-grandfather, Philip Jefferson Johnson, who grew up in Lenoir, was in the Civil War.

He fought for the Confederacy, living in Lenoir, North Carolina.

And this is his sword.

It was actually forged in the north.

And this is the union captain, Captain Bucky, of the Michigan Sharpshooters, and they were in the Battle of Petersburg in 1864.

And our great-grandfather, which is kind of amazing, it's only our great-grandfather, captured a larger regiment of the Michigan Sharpshooters.

And when they captured him, you can see when our great-grandfather went over sort of the embankment, there's a musket pole right there through the guard.

We had this documented.

He, you know, told this story, and we have it documented by our family.

He went over the embankment and was shot four times.

One went here, one went through the blanket roll that was over his shoulder.

One person missed, one of his comrades actually shot another union officer who was shooting at him, and so, but when he captured Captain Buckby, he was very gracious, and the captain surrendered this sword, and also a pocket watch that apparently had been in his family for a long time, 'cause he said, "I'm gonna go to," you know, "A prison camp, it's gonna be taken from me."

And he went off to the camp.

he survived the war.

He even escaped.

After the war, he was telling the story, you know, holding up the sword, regaling his guests, and one of the borders said, "I've heard that story, but I've heard it from the union side."

So he wrote a letter to the Detroit Free Press and said, you know, "Call me, I have your sword.

I was in this battle with you, and if you remember, you helped wash my hand in a creek, and then I let you take a bath, it was the first bath you'd had in a month, before you went off to the prison camp."

And he wrote 'em back.

And we have the documentation, it's this beautiful story about, you know, you fought for your cause, I fought for my cause, we both thought we were right, but let's not do this again, let's come together as Americans, which is, I think, in our time, is a great message.

Let's come together and not fight again.

And they met in the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago, which if you were living in Lenoir, that time was a really long way to travel.

And they met there with their wives.

Our great-grandfather had to sign a loyalty oath to the United States, we have that.

He was at Appomattox, he surrendered at Appomattox.

We have his, basically, his pass that allowed him to travel from Appomattox back to North Carolina without being shot and killed.

So, it's just a great story of after the war, these two people coming together and becoming friends.

- Wow.

What an amazing story.

[upbeat music] [crew chattering] - "Antiques Roadshow" is a big production.

Dozens of production crew members set up lights, cameras, and logistics before the show day.

We visited "Antiques Roadshow" producers on the setup day to show you how it all comes together.

Well, Sam Farrell, I know that you are senior producer with "Antiques Roadshow".

- That's right.

- Can you share with me exactly how the process works?

- Well, the guests come down the hill from their parking lot.

They're gonna be carrying or sometimes dragging or pulling some items.

They're all very excited.

They're all gonna enter the lines for triage.

And in triage, they're gonna get themselves a category ticket.

They're stamped, which tells them which table to go to.

They go and meet an appraiser.

- Welcome to the show.

- [Barbara] So excited.

- [Kevin] Glad you could make it.

Which ring you wanna do first?

- Ah, let's do pink.

- [Kevin] Pink.

Love pink.

- Barbara, you got a chance to talk to Kevin Zavian.

What is so exciting?

- I'm so excited because I have two, from 1922, a pre-engagement ring of my sweet little grandmother, and she literally told us all her life, "It's a pink sapphire, it's a pink sapphire."

And I thought, "Well, maybe it is, but maybe it isn't."

- Okay, so the first thing I noticed is it's very pink.

- Yes.

- All right?

And I got a little gizmo over here, because I have an inclination of what the stone is.

So, test with heat.

- [Barbara] Oh.

- I tested it, and it's coming up sapphire.

- [Barbara] That's what my grandmother always said.

- Interesting.

So, when a sapphire is not pink anymore and it becomes red, it becomes a ruby.

- [Barbara] Right.

- However, when I loop it, when I loop it with the loop, okay?

I see curved striae inside, which tells me it's manmade sapphire.

- Oh.

So, Kevin confirmed it is a pink sapphire, but it was manmade.

That's okay.

That's okay, Grandma.

You knew it was a pink sapphire.

So that's 101 years old.

Her pretty pink sapphire.

My mother gave it to me when I was 16.

- It is absolutely gorgeous.

Look at that pink.

So pretty.

- Like the setting, he said that's typical of that setting in that time period.

- Tiny ring.

How beautiful.

- But I just want to tell you that I was so excited about coming today.

My son and I would watch "Antique Roadshow" for years, and we'd play this little game, and we literally would just guess.

Like, he would take a guess and say what the price is, and then I'd have to say higher or lower.

[Deborah laughs] We'd keep a score.

Then my next turn was higher or lower, and we'd keep a score.

So I know he helped me win the sweepstakes tickets today.

Thank you, Tommy.

Mommy wanted to be on camera.

- So today, it's about that story and verifying that it's a pink sapphire.

And did he give you a value for it that you're allowed to share?

- I think it was like 300 some dollars because it was manmade, yes.

- Oh, but it's confirmed something for you.

- No, I know, I know, and it's just precious to me.

- Yes.

Aw, that's wonderful.

Thank you for sharing your story.

- Thank you!

Thank you!

- All right, so let's just sit and find... Yeah, I could just be crazy and like beat up comic books.

I'm not telling you it's worth anything, but we'll see, all right?

We'll find out.

I like your story though.

I love your story.

- And every once in a while, an appraiser will say, "Don't say a word.

I'm not gonna say a word.

I'd like you to sit behind a table here, and we're gonna call a producer over."

- And that's the magic moment.

- And that's the magic moment for the guest.

We interview the guest, we interview the appraiser, we see if their story checks out.

Is it a good story?

Is it gonna make good TV?

And then we send them to the green room.

So, here we are, we've come from the green room, they've filled out their paperwork.

The appraiser has been found, 'cause the appraisers are working the whole time, and they wrangle them with their object.

The props people have set up the table.

So this is a multi-camera set up with three or four cameras.

And this is where we put the bigger items with the bigger stories.

- [Deborah] You said big story, so what do you mean by big story?

What kind of things might that be?

- Well, you know, "Roadshow" is a variety show, so a big story could be an item with a great value, but it could just be a really heart-rending story.

We had this fabulous little carved bird from a Japanese internment camp.

- Tragedy sometimes comes art.

And that's what we have here.

What do you know about this?

- [Owner] We believe that my uncle created it out of sagebrush.

- Very moving, not very high value, but one of the strongest appraisals we did this year.

[gentle music] - Purposes for the McGovern campaign.

- You've been through the entire process, and I wanna hear how that experience was for you.

So, you arrived with your piece, and then what happened?

- And then I walked to the jewelry area, and I was looking in particular for Kevin.

And- - Why Kevin?

- Because I've watched him forever.

He's been on the show, he said 28 years.

Then as soon as I got up to the line to see Kevin, he ran off with somebody.

45 minutes later, he came back.

- But you waited for Kevin?

- I did, because I wanted him to see my diamond broach that I brought.

- [Deborah] What do you know about the diamond broach?

- Well, it's beautiful.

[laughs] - Where did you get it from?

- It's been in my family for about three generations.

- How thrilling was it to have Kevin take a look at it and share with you what he knew?

- [Dotty] It was very thrilling.

And it has beautiful diamonds, but it has a natural pearl in the middle, and he was just blown away by the pearl.

So, it was more than expected, really.

- Aw, I'm so happy for you.

- Thank you!

- Has this been a fun and exciting experience then?

- It has, it has.

- Aw.

- And it's great meeting you!

- Oh, well, it's nice to meet you, and thank you so much for watching our show.

Thank you for telling us the story.

I love that.

And best wishes.

- Thank you so much.

[upbeat music] - Actually here with my friend, Leon Spencer, who I've known for 23 years?

- That's right.

- Does that sound right?

Greensboro.

Tell me about this instrument.

- This is a kora from The Gambia in West Africa.

I was a young undergraduate at Wake Forest, and we were on a work camp program called Crossroads Africa to The Gambia in '64.

I was fascinated by this, and I asked my Gambian friends if they could find a place for me to buy it.

And I figured there was somebody who just made these things.

And instead, they took me by Conteh's home in the village of Brikama.

And as I found out later, he was a master kora player.

People apprenticed themselves to him and worked his fields for the privilege of learning how to play a kora.

He was a griot, a storyteller.

And then later on, I finally got this, when I heard him in the village, having just done the Newport Jazz Festival, and he made this instrument, and I've kept it ever since.

- Did you ever learn to play it?

- Oh, it's difficult to play.

Yes.

You actually usually are seated with this down like this, and you're plucking the strings like this.

And it's a fascinating instrument, and it's still, you find it widely, certainly in Senegal and in The Gambia, and elsewhere in West Africa too.

- Wow.

It obviously holds a lot of sentimental value.

- Oh, yes, yes.

- And you'll find out soon if it holds a different value.

- That's right.

But the sentimental is what I'm attached to.

- I understand.

Thank you.

Thanks for your time.

- Thank you, too.

- We'll let you move right.

That is fascinating.

- Thank you.

- Fascinating.

[upbeat music] [crew chattering] - "Antiques Roadshow" has been around for such a long time.

What would you say makes it such a draw for people who watch it even today?

- Well, here we are in season 28, and everybody who will be on the show is every man, capital E. It's you, it's me, plus our appraisers.

- And it just unhooks, there's a hook underneath that dial, and the way you regulate the speed of this clock is this is a rating nut at the bottom.

If you can remember, lower, go slower.

So, if this- - [Barbara] Well, it's those experts who are really exciting, too.

Tell me a little bit about the appraisers.

- The appraisers, they're the show, right?

Everybody can't wait to meet them.

They're brilliant.

We work with a group of about 150 appraisers.

We assign about 70 to every city.

Here's the big thing everyone should know about the experts.

They are volunteers.

We do not pay them.

They volunteer their time.

In addition to that, they pay their own way here, they pay their own hotel nights.

The appraisers are part of what puts the public in public television.

- How does one become an appraiser?

Are you certified?

Is there... You go to Appraiser University?

I mean, how does that work?

- There's a line in the business that says the quickest way to learn is to spend some money.

[laughs] Because you always, you absorb and remember your mistakes.

There are graduate programs and there are training courses to be a certified appraiser, and you can go through those courses.

I went through a master's program.

Really, so much of it, though, is just osmosis and handling and doing it year after year after year.

And you see so many things, and you gradually absorb that experience.

I think it's like a lot of other things, where you can study it in school, but you know, oftentimes, like, my art history courses were great, but you study the sort of masterpieces of the world, which we don't see every day.

- You've been at this a long time.

You've been working with "Antiques Roadshow" a long time.

- Yep.

- What is the glue that fascinates so many people the same way?

- It's a couple of different things.

Part of it is simply that wanting to know what they have, and that's a very common thing.

People just wanna know, they wanna know what they have, but they often come to share a real story about it.

And so often what we find is that things people bring in, they may know a lot about or they may already know that it's not worth a lot of money, but they come to tell their story.

And I think the fascination for the viewers is also the fantasy of, like, well, what's in my attic?

And like, you know, what if I have something on the wall that's, you know, that's a real lost treasure?

- What keeps you coming back?

- The people, no question.

- Look at you, I haven't seen you for years!

- But the collegiality with the other appraisers, you know?

These are people I see only a couple times a year, maybe, you know, at these tapings, and there's a real sense of community among the appraisers.

So, the combination of those two things is really, that's the magic for us.

And of course, like, if you make a great discovery or you see something really exciting, you know, that's the icing on the cake.

But it's really...

The interaction of all those people is what does it.

- Welcome to Raleigh.

- Oh, thank you.

It's great to be here in North Carolina.

[upbeat music] - Alice and Lynn from Raleigh.

And I understand you've already been through the line, so what did you bring, and what happened?

- I brought this pot from Western North Carolina, and Wes Cowan praised it for me.

I paid $6 for it, and it's worth $500.

It's from 1860.

- Oh my goodness!

- I was excited.

- 1860?

- Yes!

- I'll bet you were excited.

What are you gonna do with that knowledge?

- Take this pot home and put it back in the living room.

- There you go, there you go.

Wow, can I take a look?

- Yes, you can, and see, you can see the price tag I paid for it on the bottom!

- [laughs] I don't wanna see the price tag!

I was just, yeah, it's got a nice weight.

And you know, North Carolina's famous for our pottery.

- Exactly.

- And it's a beautiful piece.

- The mark is out here instead of on the bottom, but he couldn't tell what it was.

- Look at that.

Did he tell you anything else about it?

- He just said it was 1860, Catawba Valley, and this was an alkaline glaze.

- How amazing.

- [Alice] I'm happy.

[Deborah laughs] [upbeat music] - [Appraiser] Oh my.

- [David] Both Deb and I were fortunate to share our stories and items with "Antiques Roadshow" appraisers.

- [Peter] So, tell me about this violin.

How did you acquire it?

- I bought it 25 years ago.

- Uh-huh.

- And quite honestly, I was going through a divorce, and instead of buying a red convertible, I bought a violin.

- Oh, I bought the car.

- [laughs] How'd that work out?

- It wasn't a red convertible.

- And took lessons for between six and eight months and realized that it was too challenging for me to truly learn to play, but I never could part with it, and I love it, and still have it tuned from time to time.

- Sure.

- And have my friends play.

- Uh-huh.

- So, that's the story.

[gentle violin music] - This is what we call a factory made or mass produced German instrument.

It has a label on the inside.

But when they did a reproduction of an instrument, they put a reproduction of a label in there.

Sometimes they were actually making a copy of a Stradivarius, and this one says Joseph Guinarius.

So, sometimes they were making a copy, and when they made, the copies would, like... Each maker of the old Italians, they had sort of, like, their own design for the F-holes, the design for the outline, and so when they made a copy of that particular maker, sometimes, it didn't have to be that particular maker, but they would put an old label in, or a copy of it.

- So is that a counterfeit label inside there?

- Absolutely.

That's exactly what I'm telling you, yeah.

I wish it was a Joseph Guinarius, 'cause we'd both go off.

- I presume looking at how worn it is that it did bring joy and comfort and entertainment in homes.

- Well, sure.

But a lot of this I think is what we call antiquing.

I think the violin looks pretty similar to what it did brand new.

So that was done to make it look older than it really was.

If you have a new instrument that has a little shading to it, makes it a little...

They sell easier than- - How old do you think this is?

- 1930s, 1920s, 1930s, something like that.

- Wow.

I always thought when I bought it, probably mid 1800s.

- To me, it doesn't look that old.

- Look at that, so you're the youngest appraiser.

How'd you even get into this?

- It's all I've ever done in my life, is deal.

Yeah, I'm a nerd, you know?

I like comic books, toys, collectibles.

Started with Transformers, and then I just, you know, I literally love it all.

So there's nothing that I don't get into.

All right, what do we got?

- [Deborah] All right, are you ready?

- I'm ready, the big unveil.

- All right, let's do it.

Travis, this belonged to my dad, and I'm just curious to know more about it.

- So, first off the bat is that the sentimental value to you is going to be priceless compared to the actual monetary value, what we'll say.

So, this is a Tru-Vue, which would've been like the competition to a View-Master, which when we look today of what stood the test of time, View-Master is a lot well better known toy than what the Tru-Vue is.

But what I actually love about this more than the item itself is the box.

I mean, just look at the condition of this lithography on here.

You got Dick Tracy, Howdy Doody, Popeye, Red Rider on there.

I mean, it's just awesome.

You got the clown, look at the carnival angle with the seal and the elephant.

So to me, the box art is actually the more exciting part of it compared to the actual Tru-Vue itself.

But overall, it's in very good condition.

Oh, no, it's not, it's in bad condition!

The top was in beautiful shape!

The bottom smashed and no good whatsoever!

Okay, so this is not gonna be in good shape.

- Yeah.

- But oh, hey, you have the pieces though.

- I do, yeah.

- But what attracted me condition wise is this white plastic typically always gets very yellow and brittle.

So, top side was looking great.

Back side, it needs some help.

- Not so much.

- But I would say for a toy collector who wanted to buy this just to have this box on their shelf, retail setting, it's maybe about a 50 to a $75 piece, and that value is purely just for the box itself.

And if you wanted to get a little dicey, if you take, like, a Q-tip with very little cleaning, you could probably clean a lot of this up.

- Okay.

- But again, sentimental.

- I think it's the sentimental value.

- Priceless.

Are you having fun today?

- I am, I'm having a ball.

- That's all that counts then.

- Thank you so much!

- Thank you for coming.

Enjoy the day.

[gentle music] - Every little nugget there, you're learning something.

You're learning something about history.

You're learning something about material culture.

It's smart reality television.

And you don't even notice you're learning while you watch, so I think all that bundled together is our secret sauce.

- This has been an incredible day, taking people behind the scenes.

I've seen so many interesting artifacts and heard some really great stories.

How about you, David?

- It's been a day of magic here at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

People from all across North Carolina, parts of South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, coming to be a part of this day of just intrigue with "Antiques Roadshow".

We want to thank each of you.

We thank our volunteers, without whom this would never have happened.

Most importantly, thank you for inviting us into your home.

- Thank you for your support.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪