Who struck gold on "Antiques Roadshow" and who skulked away in shame after being told her fake should be burned?
Tune in to TPT at 7 p.m. Monday when the first of three shows taped last July at the Minneapolis Convention Center airs.
Nearly 6,000 attendees lucky enough to get tickets brought almost 12,000 items for appraisal. Minneapolis produced two six-figure appraisals, said the show's executive producer, Marsha Bemko. "Most cities don't even have one," she said.
About 20 people and their wares were taped for the first show, including a woman's yellow diamond engagement ring worth $150,000, a silver enamel Russian punch bowl and ladle from 1890, and a 1940s-era Sonja Henie show costume from a collector of ice-skating memorabilia.
Roy Blakey of Minneapolis is the owner of the Henie dress, the crown jewel of his collection of theatrical skating memorabilia, which includes costumes, posters, souvenir programs and lapel pins. The dress was valued at $3,500.
"I knew it was going to be a good day when I found three pennies on the ground that morning," he said, adding that he got to meet his favorite Roadshow appraiser (Leila Dunbar) and be filmed for Monday's show. "I didn't go hoping [the dress] would be worth a lot of money. But it motivated me to start cataloging my collection."
Monday's show also features a rare pink Lionel train set made for girls (the only one ever seen on the Roadshow), a 1959 Gibson guitar purchased from a music store on Lake Street, a trade sign of a carved fish, a McKinley-Roosevelt campaign poster, and a German doll stuffed with reindeer hair. To give the show some local color, host Mark Walberg takes a detour from the Convention Center to the American Swedish Institute as appraiser Sebastian Clarke discusses Mora clocks.
The three episodes will air at 7 p.m. Monday, on May 14 and 21 and be rebroadcast at 7 p.m. on the Saturdays following each airing.
In the May 14 episode, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, who with his wife collects black memorabilia, shows a placard used during a mourning parade after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. In the May 21 segment, a man brings in two paintings purchased in a lot at a farm auction for $5. His favorite of the two is appraised for $100, the other for a cool $75,000. Excursions to the Wabasha Street caves and a commemorative WWII Air Force hangar are also highlighted in the episodes.
The last time the Twin Cities area was featured on "Antiques Roadshow" was 2005 when shows from St. Paul's RiverCentre were broadcast.
Fans can see even more segments and post-appraisal interviews from Minneapolis or any other Roadshows online at www.tpt.org. If that's not enough, PBS is debuting a Roadshow spinoff called "Market Warriors" on July 16. Each episode follows four expert antique shoppers who are given a set amount of money and sent on their way in search of flea market finds. The one who gets the most at auction wins. "Sometimes they make money and sometimes they don't," Bemko said.
John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633 or jewoldt@startribune.com. If you spot a deal, share it at www.startribune.com/dealspotter.
