| ERIC KNOWLES - ANTIQUARIAN | ||||||||
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As I tap away on my laptop, using my two favourite fingers, outside my office window a long overdue, but more than welcome, spring appears to have arrived. Maybe it's all to do with getting older but the winter now departed seemed to last an eternity. The big minus that accompanies the arrival of the new season is that I have to get to grips with the garden and I have to admit that, despite the fact that I am presently working alongside the man, I am no Alan Titchmarsh.
Spring, summer and the autumn equate to endless trips to the local civic tip where I can't help casting a careful eye over some of the flotsam and jetsom thrown out by the townspeople who live in my neck of the Chiltern hills. It all comes under the scrutiny of the chaps who work at the site, some of whom have a pretty fair idea of what's what when it comes to tat versus treasure and are always grateful for any of my old copies of magazines on antiques or collecting. The world, it would now appear, is not short of potential wannabee Roadshow experts.
The new 20th Century Roadshow has no shortage of new faces, and having been involved in seven out of the ten programmes I have been staggered by the specialist knowledge that my new colleagues have brought to the brave new prog.. Michael Trainor and Pepe Tozzo are two of the experts who deal with all things that work with the press of a button or the flick of a switch and can be found on the aptly titled "Techno" stand. Costume and textiles come under the watchful eyes of Tracy Tolkien, Sarah Hodgson and Antiques Roadshow regular Madeleine Marsh - a lady who practices what she preaches by wearing it.
Working on the "Domestic Bliss" stand - yes you have read that correctly - I have been joined by the encyclopaedic Will Farmer and Steven Moore with Andy "I must get that book finished" McConnell covering glass. Later collectables in at least three of the progs have been well and truly appraised by Collect it! regular Tracy Martin, who appears to have been christened "Troika Tracy" by the production team.
20th Century has been responsible for the "Knowlesmobile" clocking up some serious mileage and on top of all that my one-man stage show Antique Antics has been keeping me on my toes as well.
Antique Antics is what you might describe as "an evening with". The format is normally a 6:30pm start when the audience is invited to come along with their treasures for me to look over. Anything small is valued on sight as is the case with those objects of lesser value, anything which might hold a few minutes of discussion is then put on stage for the second part of the 'Show'.
Things kick off at about 7:30pm when I arrive on stage where I launch into a one and a half hour talk illustrated with slides, or powerpoint images when technology permits. Subject matter mostly revolves around my thirty years in the business and is scattered with anecdotal nonsense, shaggy dog stories with a sprinkling of slightly non pc, but never offensive, observational ad libs and of course innuendo of a sort.
Bonhams has continued to keep me well occupied with valuation days in Lancashire at Astley Hall in Chorley, where I was greeted at 10am by a queue of almost 100 hopeful souls - alas, for most, the values concerned meant a day in Morcambe rather than a fortnight in Majorca.
The next day I found myself in one of my favourite places on the planet - Southport. It's a place full of happy memories as my late grandfather would spend The Wakes Holiday fortnight there year after year and we would always visit him on a day trip.
The Bonhams office is to be found in the 'Olde Worlde' part of the town called Churchtown and with a diary full of appointments I never even made it to the seafront where believe or not one of the rarest sights is the actual sea. Don't ask why just take my word for it.
Originally published in Collect it! May 2005