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Wonderfully described by Derek Nimmo as ‘the Michelle Pfieffer of the antiques world’, Bunny Campione is well-known from her many appearances on “The Antiques Roadshow”, one of the BBC’s longest-running and most popular programmes. She joined the team of experts in 1985 and, as the team member responsible for the complete range of objects under the daunting title of “Miscellaneous”, her knowledge is thoroughly tested.
Associated with the world of antiques for over 40 years, she first joined Sotheby’s on their main reception counter before progressing to the silver and then to the furniture departments. In 1981 she opened their first department devoted entirely to dolls and automata, and in 1982 she staged the first-ever auction of teddy bears. Yearly world auction records followed, not only for teddy bears but also for dolls, culminating in the still unsurpassed world auction record of £188,000 for a German bisque doll from 1909 which she discovered and sold in 1994.
In 1988 Bunny left Sotheby’s full time employment to open her own Fine Art and Antiques Consultancy, engaged in valuing, buying and selling all forms of antiques on behalf of clients. She remained at Sotheby’s as a consultant until the end of 1996, and then joined Christie’s as a Senior Consultant until 2002 while still running her own business.
Bunny speaks French, Italian and a little Greek. Her hobbies include painting, bee-keeping, Bridge, tennis, skiing, salmon fishing, bird watching, cooking, classical music and opera. She lives on a nature reserve in Suffolk with her husband Iain Grahame who is an antiquarian book dealer, and she has two sons of her own, a stepson and daughter, two grandsons and six step-grandchildren.
She has had many articles published and she has acted as consultant on several specialist books while regularly contributing to antiques magazines.
She enjoys the challenge of charity auctions where she finds extracting large bids to the benefit of deserving causes particularly worthwhile. Her slight inclination to malapropisms can make her talks especially amusing.
Bunny can also arrange an “antiques quiz” where guests have to guess the value of items she brings along – an alternative way of having a celebrity at your event, and great fun with lots of surprises.
Speech Titles
- Childhood (with slides). A comprehensive look into the history of childhood, from the 17th to the 20th Century, encompassing Clothing, Dolls’ Houses, Dolls, Furniture, Pictures, Rocking Horses, and toys
- Teddy Bears and Soft Toys – showing most makes of Teddy Bear, including auction prices. A short talk on the history of the Teddy Bear, together with soft toys, including other animals and dolls
- Rare Dolls from the 17th to the 20th Century – These are dolls that are seldom seen by the public. This talk covers more than 20 years of auctions together with prices realized, and includes dolls made of bisque, china, cloth, composition, ivory, papier-mâché, wax and wood
- On and off The Antiques Roadshow – An insight into her background leading up to joining the Roadshow and then some of her experiences on the show, including anecdotes and funny stories, viewers’ letters, mistakes, fakes and finds over the last 27 years that she has been on the show
Talks are usually 40– 60 minutes, and are flexible. Bunny is very happy to take questions.