Around 2,500 people flocked to Charlevoix this week with furniture, art, jewelry and collectibles in tow for a filming of the PBS program, Antiques Roadshow.
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Simone from Traverse City is holding a small, wicker rocking chair that she used as a child.
“I’ve just hung onto it, and various cats have slept on it through the years,” she said.
Today, on July 1, she’s about to find out where this chair came from — and what it’s worth.
“It was old when I got it, 60 years ago, so I’m sure it’s worthless, but I wanted to find out how old my worthless was,” she said.
An expert appraiser, specializing in furniture, tells her that the chair was made in a factory in the 1890s and could have even been manufactured in Grand Rapids.
He says it has more sentimental than monetary value and is likely worth around $75 to $100.
“I always call this kind of stuff historic revival because they were making things in factories of all different styles," he said. "Somebody (asked me), 'why would they do that?' and I said, well because they could.”
Simone’s husband, Christopher, is carrying a World War II U.S. Air Force pocket watch that was used by pilots to schedule bombings, but he bought it at a mall in 1976 for a very different use.
“I was working at a pizza place," he said. "My hours were so weird, that I didn’t know at 6 o'clock if the day was coming or going. So I got a 24-hour watch to tell me if it was morning or night.”
The chair and pocket watch are just two of thousands of items that people from across Michigan — and even out-of-state — have brought here for appraisal.
Crowds are lugging around all manner of artifacts, using wagons, miscellaneous boxes or bubble wrap to move their prized possessions.
The more rare, valuable items that appraisers may identify, are pulled to the side for the TV crew of Antiques Roadshow to film.
Often, the objects people bring are not worth all that much money — though you can’t put a price tag on a piece that carries some history, or just speaks to its owner.
“When you’re not interested in selling something, you really don’t care what the value is because it might be a family piece,” said Monique from Alanson, who is wheeling around a gramophone that still plays music.
The appraiser says the value of the victrola has actually gone down. Today, it’s priced at $300-500, but 30 years ago, it would have been about $2,000-3,000 due to market trends.
“I do use it when there’s no power," Monique said. "A younger person may not appreciate it but the older person would.”
Barbara, from Rodney, says she was thrilled to learn that a jewelry box, passed down from her mom, was not in fact a Renaissance Era piece.
An appraiser tells her it was just made to look that way and was probably sold to tourists in Florence.
“It’s made to look weathered, beaten up, like an old piece. Maybe 20 bucks or something like that," the appraiser said.
"That’s a relief, thank you so much!" Barbara exclaimed.
But occasionally, a large number jumps out like a $45,000 estimate for an extensive comic book collection.
Seth, from Detroit, is a comic book collector, who brought some editions of Spiderman from the 1960s. He says he has more than 900 comic books at home, but he won’t be selling them.
“Little did I know what I was getting into when I started collecting comic books," he said, with a laugh, "(so now,) I’d like to read them, crack them out and read them.”
The origin stories of items brought to the road show are all over the place.
Many were passed down from a family member, were a forgotten gift from a friend or a knick knack picked up at a thrift store.
One ring was found in a muddy puddle by an abandoned bowling alley.
One woman brought a walking stick made for tourists in West Africa that she had bought for $20 off a man on a beach in Florida.
But no one I spoke to plans to sell — or throw away — any of their items.
“Most of us don’t have things that are of interest to other people,” said Marsha Bempko, the executive producer of Antiques Roadshow.
She describes her own great-great-grandmother’s china that she’s held onto.
“Nobody wants it anymore, but as I’ve already told my daughters, you will take it and keep it in a box just like I do," she said. "You can’t just throw it away.”
The three episodes featuring Charlevoix will be included in the show’s 30th season, which debuts in January.
