So 25 years ago I asked Bob Page who owned Traditional Music near my shop about a Leedy tenor banjo that was appraised for thousands of dollars
on the Road Show. The guy from Skinner's said the entire fingerboard was mother of pearl, exceedingly rare and desirable, yada yada. It looked like
MOTS to me, and this was a time when tenors weren't really sought after much at all. Bob showed me a similar one he had for around $900 which he said
had been in the shop for 2 years--and yes, the Leedy was mother of toilet seat. He then told me about a friend of his that filled in on one episode as an appraiser--someone brought in some old saxhorn and nobody knew anything about them. Bob's friend was mainly into stringed instruments, but at least he knew what it was so was drafted into being "the expert". It went well enough they asked him if he'd like to be a regular on the show--he thought "yeah, why not?" until he found out he wouldn't be paid and would have to pay for his own lodging and travel expenses! He'd said at least at that time the appraisals were shown out of sequence: the person was told the value first right off the bat to get the best reaction, then came the blather about what the item was and its history. The Keno brothers seemed to know their stuff without question, however. The British Road Show is quite different--one of my main interests is English Victorian furniture and clocks and those appraisers could work at the Victoria and Albert Museum anytime.
