Antiques Roadshow's stop at Shelburne Museums starts Monday

Apr. 22—SHELBURNE, Vt. — Last year, Tuesday, July 12 was wild, wet and lightning frightening.

Those who sheltered in place can revisit when the storm passed over the four Mondays on Antiques Roadshow.

Highlights:

Shelburne Museum, Hour 1

Airdate: April 24 at 8 p.m. ET (check local listings)

A 1999 Pokémon Card collection, Winold Reiss Morning Star mixed-media art, ca. 1934, and a Raymond Yard platinum & diamond ring, ca. 1940. One is valued at $75,000-$100,000!

Shelburne Museum, Hour 2

Airdate: May 1 at 8 p.m. ET (check local listings)

A women's Rolex gold & diamond bracelet watch, an American Girl Barbie & wardrobe, ca. 1965, and a schoolgirl needlework, ca. 1740. One find is $50,000-$125,000!

Shelburne Museum, Hour 3

Airdate: May 8 at 8 p.m. ET (check local listings)

A 1956-1958 Celtics team-signed photo & basketball, a Buffalo Bill poster, ca. 1893, and an Edwardian sapphire & diamond ring. One is appraised for up to $150,000!

'THE SHOW MUST GO ON'

"We got three shows coming up for you," Marsha Bemko, executive producer, said.

"It was a little challenging, but we made it work. Shelburne was a beautiful location for us. Other than the storm that came overhead that was so dangerous everybody had to take shelter and we had to stop appraising during the day.

"Not to boast, but I thought we did a pretty good job of keeping everybody safe, getting everybody sheltered, and, you know, the show must go on. It's true what they say, right? It doesn't matter what happens, the show must go on. I'm pleased to say, it did. Otherwise we wouldn't be talking about three hours of Shelburne about to come up and air."

In addition to those three hours, Shelburne Museum is also in the show's 'Junk in the Trunk 12" episode airing May 15.

"That is also a show in which Shelburne segments are included," Bemko said.

"What that show is and why it's after we aired the other shows is there are leftovers from the five cities that we visited. Not enough leftovers to make a fourth hour, or you would be sure we would. But leftovers to make what we call Junk in the Trunk. You have four episodes upcoming for everybody to see what we recorded why we were there."

HOMETOWN CHARM

Bemko had a wish list, but she was blown away by a Massachusetts surprise.

"One of the things that we did see that I would never expect to see and this is the joy of watching the show, but the joy of working on the show," she said.

"Some N.C. Wyeth letters came in from a woman who had received them. N.C.'s family was cousins. She brought in a bunch of letters. This is how we connect to things. N.C. Wyeth grew up in Needham, Massachusetts, and so did I. Needham is a suburb of Boston. He was born in Needham. So any time I hear anything about N.C. Wyeth, I immediately am drawn to it because I think, oh he's from my hometown."

The letter cache was unknown to anyone but the family that owned them.

"They are really an important collection," she said.

Appraiser Devon Eastland put on them a $30,000 to 50,000 hammer at auction and $80,000 for insurance.

"Now, would I be talking to you if they weren't that kind of money?" Bemko said.

"You bet because they're from Needham. That's in Hour 2. Another thing, it's not about the money, it just happens to also be in Hour 2. I love Barbie. So this American Girl Barbie and wardrobe came in circa 1965, which is about the time I would have been playing with Barbie. It's not worth a lot of money for a Barbie doll that you had all those years, for $600 to $850 for that collection of things, I love it."

Many people of all genders, though some won't admit it, played with Barbies who are now missing in attic, basement, garage.

"It's that kind of connection to things or to stories that put a smile on my face and I hope for the people who watch," she said.

'COLLECTIVE NICENESS'

Bemko said it's amazing what people have.

"I think one of the beauties of that day, it's amazing how even if people aren't getting great financial news, it's a joyous day and people are happy to be there. They're happy to be getting information. They're happy to be meeting our experts, who they've been watching on TV for years and they can't wait to meet them and learn from them. It's an exciting day for everybody. I love the joy of the day. Everybody, for the most part, are happy and loving. It really is that kind of thing. It brings out this collective niceness in people, so that whether you're young or old, whatever your politics, whatever your race, whatever you're religion, we're one big, happy world at Roadshow.

"I think that's something I love about the day, especially in these times. We were all curious about the same things. We all want to understand more about what we own and that's common to everybody who is coming. It makes for a nice even playing field. Let me put it that way."

SHELBURNE SHOWOFF

Shelburne racked the highest number of applicants, 17,428 people, on any of the show's 2022 stops: Tuesday, May 10 — Cheekwood Estate & Gardens in Nashville, Tenn.; Tuesday, May 31 — Idaho Botanical Garden in Boise, Idaho; Tuesday, June 14 — Santa Fe's Museum Hill in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Wednesday, June 22 — Filoli in Woodside, Calif; and Tuesday, July 12 — Shelburne Museum.

"The next highest was Filoli that year, about a 1,000 less," Bemko said.

"They had 16, 566. The Knock Our Socks Off applicants for your city, there were 2,982 who applied for that. Keep in context, those are really high numbers. There were cities that had higher KOSOs than you, but that's a lot of people from the 17,428 applicants. We going to pick 2,000 pairs to that pool of people."

In Vermont, 12 people brought in KOSO items and nine of were filmed.

"Most people who applied didn't get in," she said.

"From the 3,000 KOSO applicants, we pick about 10 or 15 people to be interviews but not of them are taped."

KOSOers submit a picture of their items along with a story.

"Between that picture and story to knock our socks off and come in for an interview to be interviewed early in the morning with your item," she said.

"It gave people who didn't get tickets a second chance to get in."

This year KOSO is dubbed 'The Early Bird Contest.'

"It was a very enthusiastic response to our Vermont visit," she said.

"Attendance in Shelburne was 2,893. We do expect, obviously from the pool of tickets we gave out, that alone is 4,000 tickets," she said.

"It's a free ticket. We expect attrition. We have spent frankly years prior to getting to this amount, adjusting our ticket amounts because we don't want too many people or we can't handle the day and we don't want to little people because we want to make your three-plus episodes for every stop. It's a big juggling thing to get that ticket count right. We're pretty good now because about 3,000 people is about what we can handle."

LIGHTS, CAMERA

The Shelburne's sprawling grounds were transformed into one huge set, and people come to step on it from an average of a 100 miles away.

"We have our camera crews spread around everywhere including our Snapshot Adam producer whose walking around saying, catch me when you can. It's truly the world's biggest set. We make up a pretty big footprint because of all the appraising areas, even that triage tent. We take up a lot of space."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell