Antiques Roadshow US got off to a good start when the valuation of an old violin had one guest yelling: “Shut the front door!”
Fans of the PBS show called it the “best reaction ever”, as guest Irene Ridgway explained how she came by an antique violin and various black and white photographs relating to it. She said on the show: “My grandfather was picking up coal with his brothers by the train track and he slipped and fell and the train cut his foot off.
“His father was a bricklayer and a carpenter. His father made him go up and down the ladder with a peg leg from just right above the ankle. He decided he didn’t want to do that any more, so since he loved working with wood […] he left his father and went to learn how to make violins.”
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She went on to explain how her grandfather headed up to the Adirondacks and open a shop in Manhattan. She said: “They would wait for the trees to grow out of the hills and then bow up. It gave him a natural bow to his foot.
(Image: @RoadshowPBS/youtube)
“I understand he carved in his toes, nails, and the little hairs and the little wrinkles [into his prosthetic]. They’d go to Coney Island and they’d try and guess his weight but they couldn’t because they didn’t know he had a foot like that, so my mom always got a prize.”
Irene never got to meet her grandfather, who died in 1945, but the violin was passed down to her when she learned how to play the violin in second grade. She said the instrument was so “precious” that the money “wasn’t important” – she just valued learning more about its history.
(Image: @RoadshowPBS/youtube)
Meeting up with appraiser Claire Givens, the guest was told: “In the world of retail, I would value this bow at $4,000. It’s a beautiful bow. The violin, I would value at $12,000 – it’s a master quality instrument. All of the ephemera that you’ve brought, the tools and the pictures and the letters, I would say combined with the value, would add $3,000 to its value.”
“Holy Hannah! Wowzer. Shut the front door, girl! Are you serious?” Irene responded, branding the Nicholas Heinz violin and its French bow her “baby”. Seemingly talking to the instrument, she said: “Oh sweetie, I love that.”
Fans reacting to the clip online thought Irene’s response was perfect, with one gushing: “I think her reaction is classic!” Someone else echoed: “Holy Hannah!”
(Image: @RoadshowPBS/youtube)
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Another fan gushed: “I agree with you ma’am, when you have something as beautiful as that and the history to go along with it, plus it being an heirloom, it’s nice to know its value but the money isn’t worth the family value that’s in your heart.”
“The object’s history is priceless. Great lady and family,” somebody else agreed. Another fan gushed: “This is one for the archives, to be sealed in a time capsule and sent into the future so others may know what humans were capable of.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
