The BBC Antiques Roadshow comes to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and Angela Corrias takes a walk back in time.
I admit, when I went to the Antiques Roadshow at the Dulwich Picture Gallery I was secretly hoping to find in that vast assortment of memorabilia some magic objects, maybe an Aladdin’s lamp or a King Arthur’s sword.
There were many lamps and swords, nothing magic, but quirky and bizarre and every piece had a life of its own.
The garden of the Gallery was crowded, hundreds of people willing to price their beloved teapots, plates, paintings, clocks. Every object was classified under a category and a long queue stood before every booth.
I was inexplicably drawn to the military table, where I stood for at least half an hour listening to the stories of ancient swords and sabres.
However the busiest stand was the one dedicated to the Miscellaneous. At first I couldn’t understand the reason for this category, since every object I knew could easily be classified under 
any of the named group, but as soon as I cast a glance at the miscellaneous booth I had my first hint: the quaintest and most unidentified items I had ever seen were meekly waiting to be valued by the experts with the onerous matter to decide whether to disappoint the trusting owner or bring their illusions to reality.
Some objects were seemingly very old, others came from far-flung destinations such as Vietnam, Africa. Watching them I got transported back in time and started fantasizing that some of them were for longtime kept in the scrap heap of history, that they have witnessed famous (or infamous) historical events, or that they just crossed the destiny of a family through its generations.
The weather was unusually favourable all day long and those who didn’t have any object to flaunt enjoyed the sunshine in the green garden of the Gallery, where cold drinks and ice creams were sold in a perfect summery style.
In its many stops, the Antiques Roadshow offers the possibility to discover the past, dust the hidden beauty we didn’t realize we were sitting on and, possibly find out that we possess a fortune.
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4 Comments
What a great day ! As I stood all day greeting the eager hopefulls with their bags of treasure………I was the lady in white with the straw hat ! I reaslised that I was part of a really special event. Some people went away feeling richer some poorer but they all left with a smile , having enjoyed themselves.
When will this event be transmitted?
Re the Antiques Roadshow. We will know the transmission date in about a month – ie at the end of July, and I will send out an email to everyone who is on our E-Bulletin list, and I’ll tell the local press too. Meanwhile, I have heard from the producers that the day was such a success that they may well make it into two programmes – now wouldn’t that be good? They get around 6 or 7 million viewers. If six million people watch the programme, and then see it again the following week, they might be tempted to visit the Gallery if they have never been before – so easy to get to from Victoria, a mere 12 minutes on the train to West Dulwich.
We always clock the visitor figures so if there’s a huge rise after the programme it will be confirmed that TV is very influential.
The people that worked on the Roadshow were all charming and said they’d had an absolutely lovely day… they probably always say that! But it was a lovely day, wasn’t it? Sunshine, crowds of happy people….
Briefly: we wont know when the Antiques Roadshow transmits for another month. The producers have to look at all the filming they’ve done and then decide what order to transmit it in.