Antiques Roadshow event comes to Germantown

For 15 years, it has been known as the show featuring some of the country’s rarest treasures. You’ve seen it before: household items, paintings, family heirlooms, sports collectibles or furniture brought on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow for an appraisal.

On Sunday,  Donald Cresswell, who has appeared on the Antiques Roadshow, will make his way to the Germantown Cricket Club to give a behind-the-scenes look at the show while talking about his work as an appraiser, some of the most interesting people he’s met and the time his partner found a Lewis and Clark map from 1807.

Germantown Historical Society is hosting an event from 2-4 p.m. at the Cricket Club, 411 West Manheim St.

Cresswell, co-owner of the Philadelphia Print Shop in Chestnut Hill, author and librarian, has been an appraiser for 13 years and has been on the show since its second year. It will complete its 16th season in January.

The show has 60 appraisers at every filming site for the stream of 5-7,000 people who arrive with their antiques, according to Cresswell. When people learn their items are worth big bucks, Cresswell said, most tend to hold on to it.

“That’s pretty much how the philosophy goes,” he said. “They want to say, ‘I was on TV with this.’ It’s part of their bragging rights.”

However, others use the profits to help pay for their child’s college tuition while some donate the antique to a museum.

Purchase tickets in advance for $20 through www.germantownhistory.org or call 215-844-1683. It’s $25 at the door.

Members can join the society afterward for “What Is It? Let Us Help You Shed Light on Your History Mystery!” at which you can bring handheld items, such as books, prints, photographs or other small objects for experts examine in an attempt to unveil its history and value.

The Cricket Club also will host a brunch at 11:30 open to the public. Register for $25. and enjoy food by award-winning chef, Ted Iwachiw, executive chef at the Cricket Club.

“It is in essence a fundraiser, but it’s also a good example of what the Germantown Historical Society represents,” GHS Executive Director, Laura Beardsley said.

Said Cresswell of GHS, “It’s a very worthy organization and historical asset for Philadelphia in general but certainly Germantown in particular. They have great treasures there and they’re preserving our history from 1770 to the present.”

This marks GHS’s first year hosting the event. As of Wednesday, 35 to 40 people had registered.