'Antiques Roadshow' in Hawai'i airs tonight
By Zenaida Serrano
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Launching the new season of PBS' most-watched prime-time series, "Antiques Roadshow," with episodes taped in balmy Hawai'i "was a no-brainer," said executive producer Marsha Bemko, via telephone from Boston.
"Antiques Roadshow" begins its 11th season with three hour-long episodes taped in Honolulu; the first show airs tonight on PBS Hawai'i (see box, E3).
"Roadshow" came to Honolulu in August. The show taped appraisals at the Hawai'i Convention Center, where people waited in line for up to two hours to have their lamps, coins, Asian ceramics — and a lot of other stuff — scrutinized. "Roadshow" also shot field segments at Kamaka Hawai'i, Shangri-La, the Queen Emma Summer Palace and 'Iolani Palace.
"We were thrilled to be there," Bemko said. "It was a wonderful trip and we saw a lot of wonderful things ... you're not going to see anywhere else."
The four-time Emmy-nominated national series attracts more than 12 million viewers each week. The show features bite-size appraisals with a mix of history, suspense and an answer to the all-important question: Is it trash or treasure?
The "Roadshow" Hawai'i trip "was a real milestone for us," Bemko said, because the stop was about "five-plus years in the making," with producers figuring out costs and logistics to fly dozens of "Roadshow" staff members and appraisers off the Mainland for the first time.
Hawai'i collectors made the long-awaited trip worthwhile for the series' crew. One of the big I-can't-believe-it appraisals was a collection of art deco jewelry that belonged to a member of New York's high-society circles in the 1920s and 1930s, worth a whopping $145,000 to $197,000. The cache of jewels will be in tonight's episode.
Other highlights to look for:
At the convention center, appraisers discover an old Hawaiian poi bowl; an Atomic Ray water pistol, purchased at a swap meet for $20; and an 1886 painting of Princess Ka'iulani sitting under a banyan tree in Waikiki — a depiction by English artist Robert C. Barnfield valued at $30,000.
Appraisals in this episode include an archive of correspondence signed by Queen Victoria, her son Albert, King Kamehameha and Princess Ka'iulani; and an 18-karat gold Victorian cuff bracelet. There's also a painting of Hilo Harbor, one of only five known pieces by Joseph Nawahi, the first Hawaiian-born artist to paint in a Western style. Purchased in the 1970s for $400 at an antiques gallery and later restored for $600 to $900, the painting has an auction estimate of $100,000 to $150,000.
At the convention center, experts appraise a first-edition copy of Jack London's "Call of the Wild" and a 1915 Hawaiian flag quilt, among other treasures. The show also reveals a replica of a rare Camilli violin, which came with documentation stating it was authentic and made in 1737 in Mantua, Italy. Although the violin and bow aren't the real things, the appraiser gave the pair an auction estimate of $12,000 to $16,000.
Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com.
