When host Valerie Pringle says that the Canadian Antiques Roadshow is the greatest indoor show on earth, she's right. No other show combines so many exciting elements: fabulous venues, incredible stories, amazing treasures. And no other show does it all in front of the watchful eye of a television camera.

When executive producers John Brazill and Mark Pedersen joined forces in 2001 they had no idea that recreating the show made famous by the BBC would be such an arduous process. (The BBC show debuted in 1977, the PBS version in 1996.)

But somehow the two men, both former executives with CBC, found their way through all the complications and by early 2004 were ready to embark on the first ever Canadian Antiques Roadshow tour.

As easy as that? No, not exactly.

Making the Canadian Antiques Roadshow is actually a relatively complex balancing act. Two intrinsically connected but separate things happen at any given venue: members of the general public are given a free appraisal by an expert and a television show is made. Out of the hundreds of people who show up at each venue, about 50 items are chosen to be taped and possibly included in the final product.

But it takes an awful lot of effort to get to the point where items are vetted and filmed.

First Mr. Brazill and Mr. Pedersen had to choose the seven cities and venues for the inaugural tour. (Seven is not a random number; each season consists of 13 episodes and the goal was to be able to get two episodes per city. The seven cities chosen for the 2004 show included Saint John, Halifax, Gatineau, Toronto, Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver.)

Home base is Saint John, New Brunswick. In an office there, Senior Producer Duncan Lamb began the onerous task of hiring producers, researchers, production assistants and technicians. Generous tax credits from the New Brunswick government made it advantageous to hire as many local people as possible. But it also meant that all those people had to be traveled and accommodated across the country.

Another crucial element of the show is the appraisers. Unlike both the British and American versions, the Canadian Antiques Roadshow was starting at square one. That necessitated a lot of phone calls and name gathering before the executive producers pulled together a team of energetic, knowledgeable and personable appraisers. For television, appraisers need the perfect marriage of expertise and personality.

When the initial group of 20 gathered in Saint John for the first show (May 5) the producers knew they had something special.

Drinking is both a neccesity and a social pleasure, and through the centuries has spawned numerous artifacts, customs and traditions - many of which are still in use today. A look back in history reveals the roots from which many of these drinking customs and vessels have arisen.

The animal horn was man's earliest drinking vessel. Eventually, silversmiths would decorate them, usually at the open end and the tip. Sometimes they were mounted on a stand so they could be placed on a table. Figure 1 is a 19th century horn with brass mounts and a claw foot base, made probably in Germany.

Almost from the very beginning, paperweights were treated as an objet d'art and not as a functional piece of glass to hold down paper. Several early collectors had imperial connections, such as Queen Victoria, Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, Eva Perón and King Farouk of Egypt. Literary collectors included Oscar Wilde, and the French novelist Colette, who introduced Truman Capote to paperweights.

Not all early collectors were celebrities. From 1900 to 1938, Mrs. Applewhaite-Abbot of England acquired 428 quality paperweights, claiming she had never paid more than £26 for a weight. When her collection was made available for public auction in 1952, Sotheby's auction expert Timothy Clark created a glossary of terms to describe the paperweights. The vocabulary in that glossary remains in use to present day; the collection realized just under $90,000.

The last intended paperweight purchase of King Farouk was from the Applewhaite-Abbot collection. The 19th century 'Silkworm' by Pantin of France was acquired by Farouk's agent, David Spink for $3,300, on the same day the revolution in Egypt forced Farouk to abdicate. Spink sold the Silkworm to collector and importer Paul Jokelson. It was a wise investment on Jokelson's part; in 1983, his purchase realized $143,000 at auction. The buyer, Arthur Rubloff, would later donate it to the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1954, Farouk's collection of 600 antique weights was auctioned in Cairo by Sotheby's. The notoriety of the collector, and the size and diversity of the collection brought the first international attention to the hobby. Unfortunately, Farouk collected quantity over quality. The entire collection sold for $40,000, with some lots selling for less than $10. A St. Louis dark blue overlay commanded the highest price at $850.

Although the first paperweights were credited to the St. Louis factory of France around 1820, the techniques used in making paperweights can be traced as far back as 1500 B.C. Egypt, when glass rods, such as those used in the making of millefiori weights, were used to make mosaic beads. Millefiori, which literally translates from the Italian 'mille' for thousand and 'fiori' for flowers, clusters glass canes to give the effect of a thousand flowers. Traditional paperweights are created by encasing the canes in a magnified glass dome.