Antiques Roadshow Visits Motown

Antiques Roadshow kicked off their 2013 season with a taping in Detroit on Saturday, June 1. Although I was not at the taping, I was fortunate to be invited to a behind-the-scenes preview at the Townsend Hotel a few days before the show hosted by U.S. Trust. U.S. Trust thanked my friend, Lois Shaevsky who is on the Board of Trustees at Detroit Public Television for her community work at the luncheon. More than 50 people were treated to a lecture “The State of Jewelry Today” discussing the trends, values and styles. The keynote speaker was Kate Waterhouse (shown, left), a PBS Antiques Roadshow Appraiser and Director of Jewelry, Heritage Auctions. Carolyn Ashleigh (shown, right) is a Heritage consultant in Birmingham. So what’s trending now in the jewelry? According to Waterhouse, watch collections are very popular among the young twenty and thirty-somethings. But the best takeaway was that jewelry rarely loses its intrinsic value. She showed a strand of natural pearls that went up for auction in 2004 and sold for $21,500. A similar pieces sold for $218,00 in 2011. Each guest received the book “The Collector’s Handbook,” by James Halperin, Gregory J. Rohan and with Mark Pendergast. I can’t wait to see the value of some Motown treasures on the upcoming Antiques Roadshow from Detroit!

Tags: antiques roadshow, Birmingham, carolyn ashleigh, collections, Detroit, estate jewelry, heritage auctions, kate waterhouse, Motown, motown jewelry, pbs, pbs detroit, Townsend Hotel, u.s. trust, watch collections