Hidden trash or treasure... wouldn't we like to know

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Given that I so often write about stuff--the stuff we collect, the stuff our spouses collect--it should come as no surprise that Monday night in our house is Antiques Roadshow night. I've probably seen most of its 27 seasons, and I'm looking forward to their 28th.

Many of their most recent shows have been comprised of repurposed footage showing how (ten years later) the value of Aunt Minnie’s priceless vase has gone up, down, or tacked sideways.

In the Age of IKEA, it’s pretty depressing if you collected old stuff. Virtually any kind of antique furniture (except for mid-century modern) has gone down. WAY down. Ceramics and pottery, with rare exceptions, also down, now that eBay has flooded the market with items that were previously thought to be scarce.

Old toys are… down, as the generation that cherished them downsizes. Old children’s books and stamp collections are just about worthless.

In the wake of Covid, PBS is filming new Antiques Roadshows. I’ve twice signed up for their ticket drawing but never gotten picked. If I did, here’s what I’d bring.

I think it’s a buckle. Cast bronze? Possibly for a cape. I bought it ages ago and have always wondered whether it has any value. Once upon a time, I sewed a black velvet ribbon to it and have worn it as a belt with a long slinky black sheath. Very glam.

I’d also love to know if these glasses that I bought years ago in California have any value. I think they're gorgeous.

If you could go to Antiques Roadshow, what would you bring to show their appraisers?

The Things We Treasure

Guest Author Kate Carlisle


If you’re like me, your house is filled with treasures. No one else may recognize them as such, but to you, they’re priceless because you know the story behind each one.

“This is the seashell that I picked up on that romantic weekend getaway in Sausalito.”

“This is the sculpture I bought from the artist who was selling his work on the street outside his apartment so that he could take his girlfriend out to dinner that night.”

Often, we treasure the story attached to the object more than the object itself. And we delight in the retelling of that story.

The same is true of antiques. When an object’s provenance can be proven, the value of that object can skyrocket in the eyes of collectors. In my opinion, that’s not necessarily because it proves the item is authentic, but rather because knowing the story behind the object allows each owner, in turn, to become intimately connected with that story.

In other words, it’s seriously cool to own something that has a story you can retell when company comes over.

I think that’s why the Keno twins on Antiques Roadshow have a conniption fit when someone refinishes antique furniture. They want the grime of 300 years to show because that grime tells a story of its own.

My treasures are books. I love old books.

Let me put that another way: I loo-ooo-oove old books!!!!

I love them so much, in fact, that I created the Bibliophile Mysteries, with bookbinder heroine Brooklyn Wainwright. THE LIES THAT BIND was released on November 2. Every book by its very nature has an intrinsic story. But the words on the page tell us more than the story the author wrote; they also tell us a story about the times in which the author wrote. Then there are the stories-behind-the-story. The author’s life and death, the subsequent owners of the book, the way that book impacted the world and maybe even changed history. Every piece of this puzzle can add cache and make bibliophiles look at that book with lust in our eyes.

In 2008, a rare first edition of Oliver Twist sold at auction for $229,000, a record for a Charles Dickens book. For $229,000, you could buy a house, or you could buy a book. Which would you choose?

Not only was the book a first edition of an iconic story by Dickens, but it was inscribed by the author. So we know that Dickens touched this copy of the book with his own hands. And not only that, but it was inscribed to his good friend and fellow novelist William Ainsworth, so we can presume that Dickens felt genuine affection while writing the inscription.

Suddenly, a second mortgage doesn’t sound so silly to me. Please, sir, may I have some more?

(Don’t tell my husband I said I’d be willing to exchange our house for a book. He already thinks I’m crazy.)

After hearing about that record-breaking auction, I couldn’t resist including a first-edition Oliver Twist in THE LIES THAT BIND. But the twist behind my Twist is that it may be fake. Imagine spending $229,000 on a rare book and then discovering you’ve been conned. Suddenly, that’s not such a fun story to tell. For the purchaser, anyway. It could actually push that person to commit … murder.

Brooklyn Wainwright, my heroine, is asked to authenticate the book and pressured to say it’s genuine no matter what she truly believes. Before Brooklyn can decide what to do, the woman who had been applying that pressure is indeed murdered … and Brooklyn could be next!

Tell me the story behind a treasure in your house. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just something that means something to you. Do you collect anything? Do you haunt estate sales and thrift shops? Do you have something that has been handed down through generations of your family? Have you lost or sold something over the years that you regret letting go?

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New York Times bestselling author Kate Carlisle worked in television, studied acting and singing, toiled in vineyards, collected books, and joined a commune, but it was the year she spent in law school that drove her to write fiction. It seemed the safest way to kill off her professors. Those professors are breathing easier now that Kate spends most of her time writing near the beach in Southern California where she lives with her perfect husband. Visit Kate online!