Antiques Roadshow

I bumped into a TV show Sunday night that I have seen before and like. It's a PBS (Educational TV) show that is probably the highest rated of all that is shown on non commercial television. The show is called Antiques Roadshow, and it is fascinating. Antique Roadshow invites the public to a huge antique appraisal that is held in several U.S. cities (thus, the term "roadshow") each year.
The main reason it is fun to see strangers display objects they think might be old and valuable is the concept of treasure to trash or trash to treasure. That is, what is the worth of that "thing" that the person and Antique Roadshow appraiser are discussing? What appears to be valuable often isn't and what looks like a prize is just as often junk. One episode a fellow from Arizona brought in a blanket that had been in his family for generations. It to me looked like a blanket one would buy at a department store, yet the object appraised at $350,000. It was a rare Navaho Indian blanket.
So as I clicked the channel tuner (as all men do too much) to find something interesting on the boob tube, and came upon a segment of Antiques Roadshow, I watched in fascination. Often I guessed wrong as to what the antiques were worth, and just as often wondered why some things that looked innocuous were so valuable.
I was motivated to see if Antiques Roadshow would come to New Orleans this year and looked on the web to see which cities the show would visit. But as expected, even Antiques Roadshow is avoiding destroyed New Orleans these days. It is a shame, as this city has been regarded as one of the most blessed with antiques. Uh..that was before Hurricane Katrina flooded and ruined so many of them in the great hurricane of last year.
I found that the closet city to have a Roadshow visit was Mobile, Alabama, too far for me to take some of the "suspects" I have for that free appraisal the Roadshow gives. Yep! Getting items appraised is expensive, so if Road show ever comes to the city of the dead (New Orleans, after the hurricane) I will take some of the items I inherited from my ancestors and have them take a look.
I already know one painting I have is worth at least $30,000, and I have two others from a deceased, prominent local artist who's paintings start in the $5000 range. Then there are several antique serving tables from the 1850's, a magnificent bisque Roman chariot that was made about 200 years ago, a crystal antique lamp that I was told was worth several thousand dollars... and there are many larger items of great age hat I would love to have appraised btu could not take, given their size. Who knows what value some other objects I have would be. I have a trove of older things because I like old furnishings better than new. They have character and tell a story, given they are hand crafted and singular. It is said that the last survivor of a family often holds treasures unknown and that sometimes they are lost through that ignorance. Antiques Roadshow reminded me of that, and that I should probably secure or insure some of them.
So I now ask you. What valuables does your family hold? Have you ever had them formally appraised?.