Brian Witherell with a victorian-style wicker rocking chair that iGavel Associate Seller John Nye of Nye and Company appraised for the Antiques Roadshow in Baton Rouge. Photo Credit Advocate.com
As is the case with oak trees, Scotch whisky and leather, on Antiques Roadshow, older usually means better. Thousands of people filed into the Baton Rouge River Center on Saturday to participate in a daylong filming session of the popular traveling appraisal show that plans to televise three hourlong episodes from its Baton Rouge visit sometime in 2014. Some of the day's most valuable items included a landscape painting by Porfirio Salinas appraised for $45,000; a group of autographs from astronauts worth $35,000; and a nearly 250-year-old French sword valued at $20,000 that was sent across the Atlantic Ocean in 1779 for use in the American Revolutionary War. Chris Mitchell, one of about 70 of the show's appraisers on site, said the sword's owner thought the sword dated back to the Civil War era, but that upon closer examination, it turned out to be much older. The thing that someone brings in for the show that they think is really good is usually junk, and vice versa, Mitchell said, not insinuating that a Civil War-era sword would be junk, but that Antiques Roadshow offers plenty of surprises, even for people who have been appraising items for decades. Brian Witherell, a general appraiser who has worked for the nearly 20-year-old show since its second season, said that in regard to Louisiana furniture, it's all about history and wood type. One particular chair that he appraised featured tapered arm rests, a Spanish moss-stuffed seat cushion and an assortment of poplar, birch and oak woods that made up the chair's framework. If the wood is Southern, Witherell said, the possible plantation chair could be worth up to $5,000. If not, then it might be worth only $100, he said. Continue Reading on The Advocate.com
