Antiques Roadshow

There will be a new morning ritual in many households this fall. Before leaving for the office, the VCR will be set on the Discovery Channel, the cable educational and documentary network, to record the "Antiques Roadshow" from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. And those who don't go to the office may be arranging their days to be in front of a TV for that half-hour. The BBC's "Antiques Roadshow" has arrived in America and it is the best show on antiques ever devised.The Discovery Channel began broadcasting the reruns on Oct. 1, Mondays to Fridays, and it is scheduled to continue with some repeats for 52 weeks.

Even under the best of circumstances, archives lack airtight security. It's generally harder to get to the gate at the average airport than it is to gain access to the valuable historic documents stored and maintained by the hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. universities and colleges, public libraries, nonprofit organizations and state archives. Being able to browse these records, to read and touch history, is a privilege that many of us have long taken for granted. But no longer.

Next Saturday thousands of people will line up in front of the Baltimore Convention Center, each carrying a treasure.If the treasure is too large to carry -- an occasional table, say, or a Majolica fountain -- they'll be pulling it in a little red wagon or on a dolly.Most probably the weather will be brutally hot and humid. But the 6,500 people who get tickets won't care. This will be their chance to be part of the addictively watchable PBS series "Chubb's Antiques Roadshow," in production this summer for its fourth season.

If you saved the cash you received as Christmas or holiday gifts, then you're flush and ready for the Washington Winter Show of Antiques and Fine Arts this weekend at American University. If you didn't save your money, it's OK, honey, because the recent recession has led to a bargain market for many kinds of antiques. According to expert collectors, it's never been a better time to purchase heirloom furniture, ceramics, glassware and more. The show features wares from 45 dealers from the U.S. and Europe, including experts in formal antiques, country furniture and Oriental rugs, offering a range of furnishings and decorative arts,.

Chris Jussel isn't really surprised by the success of "Chubb's Antiques Roadshow." But he does admit to being a little taken aback by the depth of some people's devotion to him and his roving band of antiques appraisers."

The period is Edwardian. The legs are New York. And the heart-shaped back is all Baltimore. In the bowels of the Baltimore Convention Center, appraiser Mike Flanigan ran his fingers along the carved rim of a chair that had been in my family for at least a century but about which we knew virtually nothing. "It belonged to my grandmother, and that's about all we know," said my own grandmother, Elizabeth Kreis. In that bare detail, the piece was typical of the thousands that make their way to Antiques Roadshow every year: They've been around forever, maybe in a closet or attic, perhaps lovingly cared for, but the history and the value are great unknowns.

Paul-David Van Atta got in line at the Baltimore Convention Center around 6 a.m. Saturday, lugging a 5-by-3-foot painting he suspected could date back to the 16th century.Van Atta was just one of the thousands of collectors, speculators and just-plain folks in a line that wrapped around the outside of the convention center one-and- a-half times. All had made the early-morning trek to get a free appraisal of their cherished what-have-yous at PBS' "Antiques Roadshow."Some, like John and Lydia Phillips, wanted to find out what they had. The Phillipses brought an African-looking figure his grandfather had unearthed at a building site in the '40s.

WAYNE PRATT, 64 `Antiques Roadshow' appraiser Wayne Pratt, who appraised antiques on Antiques Roadshow and who figured in the corruption scandal that toppled former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, died Thursday at home in Woodbury, Conn., of complications after heart surgery, said Marybeth Keene, vice president of Wayne Pratt Inc. Mr. Pratt's business in Massachusetts specializes in Windsor chairs, primitive portraits, painted country furniture, mechanical banks and folk art. He made enough money selling antiques as a teenager to finance his first year in college, Ms. Keene said.

On the first Saturday of every month, the Walters Art Museum (North Charles and Centre streets) offers Family Flick Days. Each film or video screening is designed to entertain and spur discussion. Films begin at noon, admission is free. Among the offerings: Antiques Roadshow, Jr.: Kid Collectors (Oct. 1); Families of Russia (Nov. 5); Exotic Tales from Exotic Lands - Tales from the Latin American Indians (Dec. 3); Reading Rainbow: The Paper Crane with host LeVar Burton (Jan. 7). Call 410-547-9000.

SAMUEL PENNINGTON publishes Maine Antique Digest, watchguards the antiques market, collects (historical bronze sculptures), and now and then catches public television's current hit, "Antiques Roadshow." Now and then his eyes, too, widen.May's issue of M.A.D., as the trade calls it, had 412 tabloid-size pages; 30,000-some subscribers rate M.A.D. without equal for Americana.Pennington, who founded M.A.D. in 1973, is from Baltimore (Calvert School, Johns Hopkins '52). Waldoboro, Me., offered lower costs, perhaps more action (recently a July 17, 1776, printing of the Declaration of Independence turned up in a Dumpster; clouded provenance, but worth at least $100,000)

One of the biggest perks of my job is that I get to peek inside some of the most interesting and beautiful homes in the Mid-Atlantic region. A common element to some of my favorite interiors is the use of antiques—as an accent or to complement the other furnishings and accessories. In even the most contemporary schemes, a well-chosen early-American artifact, exquisite French modern chair, or antique charcoal figure study has the effect of personalizing the space, adding character and differentiating it from a room furnished through so many clicks of a mouse.

No disrespect to the hundreds of church halls, elementary schools and local civic clubs that hold flea markets every year, but the people behind the Big Flea, a huge antiques and collectibles show coming to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium for the first time this weekend, insist they have little in common with those small-timers. "The traditional flea market is a very small, small smattering of old merchandise," says Joan Sides, founder of Virginia-based D'Amore Promotions, which organizes the shows.

HOLIDAY Great Halloween : Lantern Parade : This Baltimore staple celebrates its 10th anniversary with even more holiday fun. Things kick off at Patterson Park at 3 p.m. Saturday with a new outdoor festival that includes hayrides, boatloads of apple cider and more. The parade, featuring stilt-walkers and hundreds of paper lanterns, starts at 7:30 p.m. Web: creativealliance.org CONCERT Dirty Projectors: : These experimental rockers may hail from Brooklyn, but they sure fit in well with Baltimore's quirky and gritty music scene.

With three children and a mother's desire to give them the perfect Christmas, Dionne Smith might have joined the post-Thanksgiving rush to the stores this weekend. Instead, the Woodlawn resident headed in exactly the opposite direction - to a place that was quiet rather than frenzied, where she would sell rather than spend. She arrived with a little Ziploc-type bag of gold jewelry; she left with $75. "It's going to go in the bank," Smith declared. It was the only kind of Black Friday that made sense to some this year, when the traditional opening day of the holiday shopping season coincided with an economy that continues to falter.

A snowscape painting purchased for $150 is now valued at $70,000, and the owner cannot stop giggling when she gets the news - until she literally loses her breath and starts to gasp for air. A Kwakiutl ceremonial mask bought for $4,000 by a guy who sounds like a real wheeler-dealer is appraised at only $2,000 - it's not authentic - and the suddenly speechless owner looks as if he's been punched in the gut. On TV Antiques Roadshow airs at 8 tonight on...

WAYNE PRATT, 64 `Antiques Roadshow' appraiser Wayne Pratt, who appraised antiques on Antiques Roadshow and who figured in the corruption scandal that toppled former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, died Thursday at home in Woodbury, Conn., of complications after heart surgery, said Marybeth Keene, vice president of Wayne Pratt Inc. Mr. Pratt's business in Massachusetts specializes in Windsor chairs, primitive portraits, painted country furniture, mechanical banks and folk art. He made enough money selling antiques as a teenager to finance his first year in college, Ms. Keene said.

If you saved the cash you received as Christmas or holiday gifts, then you're flush and ready for the Washington Winter Show of Antiques and Fine Arts this weekend at American University. If you didn't save your money, it's OK, honey, because the recent recession has led to a bargain market for many kinds of antiques. According to expert collectors, it's never been a better time to purchase heirloom furniture, ceramics, glassware and more. The show features wares from 45 dealers from the U.S. and Europe, including experts in formal antiques, country furniture and Oriental rugs, offering a range of furnishings and decorative arts,.

This time, MPT is truly for the birds. The latest production effort from Maryland Public Television, "Stokes Birds at Home," makes its debut in these parts at 10: 30 a.m. Jan. 15. Over the next 13 weeks, Don and Lillian Stokes will do their best to do for bird-watching what Chris Jussel and "Antiques Roadshow" have done for antiquing -- turn it into something of a national obsession. The premiere episode sets the tone for what should follow, as the down-homey Stokeses -- sometimes, with their scripted banter, perhaps a little too down-homey -- clue viewers in to the ornithological wonders available just outside their back doors.

The period is Edwardian. The legs are New York. And the heart-shaped back is all Baltimore. In the bowels of the Baltimore Convention Center, appraiser Mike Flanigan ran his fingers along the carved rim of a chair that had been in my family for at least a century but about which we knew virtually nothing. "It belonged to my grandmother, and that's about all we know," said my own grandmother, Elizabeth Kreis. In that bare detail, the piece was typical of the thousands that make their way to Antiques Roadshow every year: They've been around forever, maybe in a closet or attic, perhaps lovingly cared for, but the history and the value are great unknowns.

On the first Saturday of every month, the Walters Art Museum (North Charles and Centre streets) offers Family Flick Days. Each film or video screening is designed to entertain and spur discussion. Films begin at noon, admission is free. Among the offerings: Antiques Roadshow, Jr.: Kid Collectors (Oct. 1); Families of Russia (Nov. 5); Exotic Tales from Exotic Lands - Tales from the Latin American Indians (Dec. 3); Reading Rainbow: The Paper Crane with host LeVar Burton (Jan. 7). Call 410-547-9000.