Residual antiques and items from the estate of the late antiques dealer, publisher and entrepreneur Martin Miller are to go under the hammer in a Dorset auction house later this month. Her own preferences for antiques included single chairs (“It’s a lot easier to buy a good-quality chair when you buy them singly,” she said. “I like to stroke them.”), 1920s and 1940s Monart glass, an 18th-century Worcester “guglet” shape bottle and costume jewellery.

Martin Miller was born in 1946, and has been referred to as the Richard Branson of the antiques world. A charismatic entrepreneur he co-founded Millers Antiques Price guide in 1979 with his wife Judith Cairns which was hugely successful. 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). Judith previously revealed that her most memorable find on the show was a set of Art Deco posters designed by Jean Dupas unearthed at Stanway House in 2009. His only job working for another person was as a teenage paperboy. Instead, Miller found his entrepreneurial bent at the age of 14 when he bred hamsters and wrote a dating guide for blokes called Success With the Fairer Sex, which he printed on a Roneo duplication machine and sold between 50 and 100 per week.

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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).

Judith Henderson Miller (née Cairns; 16 September 1951 – 8 April 2023) was a Scottish antiques expert, writer, and broadcaster. Martin John Miller, entrepreneur, was born on 24 November 1946.He died of cancer on December 24, 2013. Serial entrepreneur and bon viveur who out his name to boutique hotels and a profitable gin label. Invariably tieless and with a shaggy mop of hair that was once described as a pekingese dropped on his head, he resembled a middle-aged hippy. However, this was a cunning disguise for his shrewd business mind.

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Judith Miller's Guide to Period-Style Curtains and Soft Furnishings (Mitchell Beazley), ISBN 978-1-58567-054-3 Her astute knowledge of ceramics was a given, but Judith also had an eye for the eclectic and the bizarre, from ingenious mechanical toys to quirky dolls with colour-changing eyes,” he said.

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. The Antiques Roadshow expert leaves behind her husband John Wainwright, three children and four grandchildren. 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. Miller died at a hospital in North London on 8 April 2023, at the age of 71. [4] [8] Bibliography [ edit ] Plus, she had authored many other books, too many to list, some of which were already on my bookshelf. But she was always gracious and generous with her knowledge, helpful to me and our whole team.

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Miller co-founded Miller's Antiques Price Guide with her first husband Martin Miller in 1979 and at the time of her death she was in the process of writing an updated edition of the guide, the Mirror reports. Tributes have poured in from the antiques world, with co-stars hailing her as “delightful” and “magnanimous”. Paying tribute to the expert, Antiques Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce said: "When I started on the Antiques Roadshow, I was in awe of the experts - and none more so than Judith. She was Miller of Miller’s Guides no less, the bible of the antiques world when it came to valuations. Plus, she had authored many other books, too many to list, some of which were already on my bookshelf. After he sold Chilston Park in 1998, he used the proceeds to acquire a couple of properties in Westbourne Grove, London, which he renovated, before opening Miller’s Residence, an eight-bedroom boutique hotel in the neighbourhood. Its outlandish decor, an extravaganza of Gothic bric a brac, found favour with the European art and fashion crowd, American film and music business folk, commuting French stall-holders in nearby Portobello Market and itinerant celebrities such as Marianne Faithfull. “It is a return to the idea of the Victorian rooming house," Miller said. “You know the sort of place, run by a widow, where the sons of the aristocracy would be sent, to keep them safe from the temptations of the capital." She was magnanimous in giving me writing work early in my career. Here with Will Farmar too, all our thoughts are with her family. RIP.” Judith joined the BBC programme in 2007 and is a successful lecturer and author, having written over 100 books on the subject of antiques.

The Illustrated Dictionary of Antiques and Collectables (Marshall Publishing), ISBN 978-1-84028-337-2 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. 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.” And when our filming day had finished, she was never short of great stories accompanied by a glass of her favourite tipple, pinot grigio.

I got caught up in a lazy lifestyle, held lots of parties, had very long lunches, played masses of games of chess and led a very unstressful life. But it can be very expensive.' So two years ago he got busy again. But although he enjoys the wheeling-and-dealing world, he is not very interested in making money or even in possessions. He no longer has any antiques collections, for instance. 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.”