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Veteran television personality Valerie Pringle doesn't know much about antiques, so she was a bit suspicious when asked to be the host of the Canadian version of the hugely popular show, Antiques Roadshow.
"I wanted to know if the word 'antique' was included in the description of the host," said Pringle, a fixture on Canadian television for the past 20 years.
The Canadian Antiques Roadshow , complete with Pringle and roughly 2,000 curious and excited New Brunswickers clutching assorted valuables, began its first cross-Canada tour on Wednesday, opening in the historic city of Saint John on the Bay of Fundy.
"It's what we dreamed it would be," said Pringle, looking over the stage of the handsome old Imperial Theatre in Saint John where appraisers assessed thousands of items.
"It's people lined up around the block, telling you things like 'this is my sled from my childhood; this is the elephant clock from my mother's house.' You get this lovely slice of life," said Pringle.
Appraisers worked from early in the morning until late in the afternoon, assessing somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 objects presented to them by their proud owners.
The items ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, including one gentleman who presented a box of colorful prints which he thought were genuine works by Vincent van Gogh.
Instead of the millions in assessed value he hoped for, the prints were worth only a few dollars.
On the other side of the coin, Brenda Liston of Fredericton and her daughter, Rebecca, lugged in a flip-top tea table Brenda had picked up at a garage sale 14 years ago for $75.
The table turned out to be a rare Chippendale.
"They said it's worth around $12,000 which is a lot better than the $75 I paid for it," Liston said happily.
She said she decided to bring the table to the Canadian Antiques Roadshow after seeing a similar one valued highly on the U.S. version of the roadshow.
The roadshows have become a television phenomenon.
Mark Pedersen, a co-producer of the Canadian roadshow, said the original British version has been running for 27 years. He said the U.S. spin-off is the most popular show on the PBS network.
"This is sort of the original reality show," Pedersen said.
"But it's very classy and it's one where the formula has worked so well, I think it will last for years and years."
The roadshow will make seven stops across Canada throughout the month of May, beginning in the Maritimes and ending in Vancouver.
Fourteen shows will be aired on CBC-TV, beginning in January.
Guest appraiser Clive Stewart-Lockhart, one of the personalities from the British roadshow, said the Saint John session was very similar to the shows in Britain.
"There has been a range of wonderful things and, inevitably, some things of very little value," he said of Saint John. "We get just the same in England."
Saint John was a logical choice for the first roadshow. It's the oldest incorporated city in Canada and it's renowned for antique shops and markets.
"There are families that have been here for 200 years," said Pedersen.
"It's a treasure trove of antiques and heirlooms."