Additional Coverage:
- ‘Antiques Roadshow’ guest breaks down after hearing the value of her grandma’s ‘studio trash’ (marketrealist.com)
One woman’s trash became another woman’s treasure – literally! A recent episode of Antiques Roadshow featured a guest who brought in three costume designs once belonging to her grandmother, a studio draper.
The guest recounted how her grandmother rescued the designs from the trash after the costumes were made. Little did she know, these discarded sketches would turn out to be worth a small fortune.
Appraiser Laura Woolley identified the designs as depicting costumes worn by Hollywood royalty – Elizabeth Taylor, Lucille Ball, and Rita Hayworth. Woolley explained that despite their “honest wear” – including thumbtack holes, coffee stains, and pencil marks – the designs were genuine production pieces, adding to their value.
The Elizabeth Taylor sketch, lacking identifying marks, was appraised at $300-$500. A design clearly featuring Lucille Ball, though from an unknown film, was valued at $800-$1,200. The star of the show, however, was a Rita Hayworth design, estimated to fetch up to $5,000 at auction.
The guest was stunned, referring to the designs as “studio trash” and expressing her disbelief at their worth. Overwhelmed with emotion, she tearfully thanked the appraiser, saying she never thought of the sketches as valuable items, but rather as “friends” representing her grandmother’s legacy. The total estimated value of the three designs reached nearly $7,000.