The Complete Guide to Antiques

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She was a great champion of costume jewellery and vintage fashion, and her eyes would light up when she had the chance to appraise a rare piece from Biba or Vivienne Westwood.” The author also contributed to a number or national broadsheet newspapers and magazines and regularly appeared on television in the UK and USA. Miller died at a hospital in North London on 8 April 2023, at the age of 71. [4] [8] Bibliography [ edit ] Wider popularity came with Antiques Roadshow. “I was approached by Simon Shaw, the producer, as I’d worked with him on Home Front. Initially, I said I was too busy, but agreed to do one. After that, I was totally hooked and wanted to do as many as I could.” Her last episode was screened in October 2022. She had such energy and spirit and always combined her impressively broad-ranging, in-depth knowledge of antiques with a lifelong passion to make the world of collecting accessible and unintimidating to all.

Like the son of a vicar who embraces atheism, Miller rejected all the encouragement he got from his insurance salesman father to save for the long term. 'I have absolutely no interest in looking to the future,' he says from Miller's Hotel in West London, which he owns and now lives in. 'I have always had this belief that I would never run out of money. But if you get yourself insurance policies, the last thing you can do is get your hands on the money.' Now 53, he has no pension and no plans to get one. In reality, his business assets will be his pension. The Antiques Roadshow expert was a co-founder of Miller's Antiques Price Guide with her first husband Martin Miller, in 1979.Miller also regularly lectured at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Smithsonian. [6] Publishing and select bibliography [ edit ] Miller wrote more than 100 books on antiques and interiors but was best known to the public for her appearances on the long-running BBC series, which she joined in 2007. But she was always gracious and generous with her knowledge, helpful to me and our whole team. And when our filming day had finished, she was never short of great stories accompanied by a glass of her favourite tipple, Pinot Grigio. She was the doyenne of the antiques world and of our show. Irreplaceable. And hugely missed.”

Martin Miller was a charismatic entrepreneur and bon vivant, and after co-founding the bestselling antiques price guides that bear his name (and made his fortune) went on to become a successful hotelier. Martin John Miller was born in Worthing, Sussex, in 1946. His father, Mark, was an old-fashioned insurance agent, who maintained his own “book" of customers and sold it on to another agent as a substitute for a pension. Martin said his mother, Phyllis, had told him “she conceived me on gin, then tried to get rid of me on gin" — though this was presumably a joke to promote his own label. The expert, fascinated by the plates she bought in the city’s junk stores, began to research their history in books, auction catalogues, and at local antique fairs.

Judith will be much missed by all those readers and viewers who looked to her for expert and reassuringly friendly advice.” The expert leaves behind husband John Wainwright, three children and four grandchildren. Judith Henderson Miller (née Cairns; 16 September 1951 – 8 April 2023) was a Scottish antiques expert, writer, and broadcaster.

Born Judith Henderson Cairns in Galashiels, Scotland, Miller first began collecting antiques while studying history at the University of Edinburgh. [1] [2] In 1979, she co-wrote the Miller's Antiques Price Guide with her first husband, Martin Miller, whom she had married the year before, and had two children with. [1] [2] [3] Television presenter [ edit ] She contributed various columns to The Daily Telegraph, including a 2010 series called Collectors’ Corner. She lectured at the V&A and the Smithsonian, presented It’s Your Bid on the Discovery Channel and co-presented The Antiques Trail on ITV. Among her other obsessions she numbered dogs, Scottish rugby and – above all – Bruce Springsteen: she travelled the world to see The Boss live. A one-man brand, Martin Miller shamelessly applied his surname to his every enterprise — hotels, antiques and gin — in the manner of a Victorian merchant. Antiques are green,” she maintained, railing against Ikea-isation. “No one is going to convince me MDF will prove a good investment.” When asked by people what to buy, she advised: “Something that when you come downstairs in the morning it makes you smile – you want to stroke it.” Her own passions were costume jewellery and “single chairs” (cheaper than a set).Murphy also praised Miller’s “warmth and good humour” and said she had a “lovely way of delivering a story on camera”. Some of Miller’s early TV appearances on the BBC were in 1995 and 1996 episodes of the property makeover show Home Front and in The Art and Antiques Hour in 1997. With the gossip columnist Ross Benson, she jointly presented all eight series of The Antiques Trail (1995-2002), screened in ITV’s Meridian and HTV regions. Judith Miller went on to write more than 100 books, on interiors (Colour, Sixties Style, Art Deco), specialist categories (Metal Toys, Handbags) and collecting (How to Make Money Out of Antiques). Miller cofounded the Miller’s Antiques Price Guide with her first husband, Martin Miller, in 1979, and it is still published annually. After her marriage to Martin Miller ended in divorce in 1992, Miller began a relationship with John Wainwright, and they had one son. The family lived in North London as of 2004 [update]. [7] Miller and Wainwright married in 2015. [4]