Popular BBC1 Sunday evening programme The Antiques Roadshow arrived in the capital today, filming for its 36th series in the grounds of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Belford Road.
An estimated 2000 turned out and patiently queued to take advantage of the free advice and valuations provided by presenter Fiona Bruce along with several leading antiques and fine arts specialists, including jewellery expert Geoffrey Munn, dolls enthusiast Hilary Kay, Japanese ceramics specialist Lars Tharp and collector Judith Miller.
Police and Traffic Wardens were on hand to deal with congestion and a ‘dropping off’ point was established at the car park opposite which came in handy for the many people who brought bulky pieces of furniture.
Due to the limited parking in the vicinity, organisers encouraged visitors to use public transport and the free shuttle bus from the Scottish National Gallery on The Mound which operated between 0900 and 1400 was particularly busy.
The first visitors arrived at the venue around 6.30am, three hours in advance of the official opening time and as expected long queues formed, but the crowd remained good natured and everyone was guaranteed a valuation so long as they were there before 4.00pm. Thousands of items such as paintings, ceramics, vases, stamps, musical instruments toys and jewellery were carried to the venue, and most had an interesting tale behind them.
Anne Goodwin from Murrayfield certainly didn’t mind the long queues, and had an enjoyable day in the Edinburgh sunshine which culminated with a satisfactory valuation from art and design expert Paul Atterby.
She told the Edinburgh Reporter: “I learned about the Antiques Roadshow coming to Edinburgh from a leaflet I picked up at a Gallery, and after being pushed by my mother, I decided to bring along a couple of items.
“The main one was a painting which had been given to my father who was a GP, from a grateful patient about 45 years ago. I have had it for about 20 years and today the experts told me that it had been painted by Nicholl Erskine.
“I also brought along an Edwardian Tapestry which was part of a wall hanging, but he couldn’t tell me much about it other than the embrodary had a tiny piece of repair work done.
We arrived about 10.20am and had to queue for two hours but I’m glad we came. It’s been a really good day and the weather has been great.”
The Roadshow team were unable to provide a date when the event will appear on TV although some visitors were told either this autumn of spring 2014.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
