While catching Antiques Roadshow tonight, filmed in April 2007 in Mobile, Alabama, a woman came on with a very nice collection of 19th century inkwells. She was interviewed by Karen Keane of Skinner out of Boston.

She stated that her husband collected fountain pens so she started collecting inkwells. She had a very nice looking collection of varied pieces, many different designs and materials. The interviewer estimated the collection at $3,000 to $5,000 seeming somewhat knowledgeable.

Any of you readers have an inkwell collector wife who got her 5 minutes of fame? Cool!

Also saw an unopened Monopoly game from the 40's, a Fender electric guitar from 1954 (serial # 0047. . . yes, the 47th one made) and a 1700's Pennsylvania Windsor back chair estimated at $70,000 (wow!) to name a few. I DO like this show.

By the way, the lady with the inkwells stated she acquired them all from junk shops, garage sales, antique stores and the like. Gotta love it.

I saw that! I was making dinner and my wife called me in. I was pretty impressed by that Strat!

I also saw. I asked my wife if she wanted to collect inkwells. The lady on the show said that she did it in self-defense; her husband was a pen collector! I don't know what she is talking about!

Anyway, my wife isn't interested. Too bad!

IIRC, that was David Moak's wife.
Regards, greg

Several back channel replies have identified the woman previously described, as the wife of David Moak (author of "Mabie in America").

The appraisal of the Fender Stratocaster was an example that you need to take Antiques Roadshow appraisals with a very large grain of salt. The appraiser made two major errors showing his lack of knowledge in his evaluation of the guitar. His first was saying that particular stratocaster was the 47th one ever made. He went by the serial number plate which any reasonably knowledgable collector of Fender guitars can tell you is generally meaningless in terms of saying when a particular instrument was made outside of a range of a year or two. According to Leo Fender himself and others who worked for him the serial number plates at Fender were kept in a big box in a complete jumble and when the guy making the guitar needed a serial number plate he would just reach in the box and grab whichever one came to hand. The other major error the appraiser made was not completely disassembling the guitar to check on serial numbers and codes that are on most of the electronics, under the pickguard, inside the neck pocket and such. It is rare for a stratocaster or similar old electric guitar to be 100 percent original and with each changed part or refinished piece of wood the value plummets. Stratocasters are very simply built instruments and it is a very simple thing for most anyone with a screwdriver to have changed parts at any point in its life. In the past couple of decades as the prices have skyrocketed on these the forgery business has blossomed and not only are there many outright fakes around, but more dangerously there are many strats made up of old parts. It is like when they talk about early American furniture and start uncovering non-original parts and refinishing and such and say that had it only been 100 percent original the value would have been five times what the appraisal is. This appraiser made some very unsupported assumptions that the guitar was completely original and untouched. I find that the appraisers on Antiques Roadshow have good general knowledge but their specialized knowledge in many areas is sadly lacking and they make many mistakes and over-appraisals. It is good for ratings though so they tend to go for the big impact rather than the realities.

I just bought an old Parker Quink bottle from an antique shop, maybe I hit gold?

Has the cap been refinished, and do you know if the ink is the original ink and not just a replacement part?

-Nkk