Judith Miller, an author and antiques expert who appeared on BBC One’s Antiques Roadshow, passed away at the age of 71. Mitchell Beazley, her publisher, stated that she “passed away over the weekend after a brief illness”. In 2007, the BBC ran a story on Miller, a writer of more than 100 books about antiques and interior design.
She continues to teach and broadcast regularly and co-founded the 1979 international best-seller Miller’s Antique Price Guide. Miller had been working on the most recent edition of the Antiques Guide when she passed away.
Her recognition of a collection of Art Deco posters created by the French artist Jean Dupas, which he found in 2009 at the Stanway estate in Gloucestershire, was one significant find on her Antiques Roadshow. Miller, a 1951 native of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, confesses she belongs to the “Formica generation” and claims she just began collecting antiques in the 1960s when a student at Edinburgh University.
She began investigating the cheap plates she had acquired from local thrift shops, gathering details from books, auction catalogs, and regional antique shows. The Octopus Publishing Group’s Alison Starling said: “I have been fortunate to have worked with Judith on and off for the past 30 years and to hear of her passing I am Very shocked.”
M. Le is “deeply missed” and has made many friends with Octopus staff “through topics as diverse as work, family, dogs, Scottish rugby, and her other hobbies, Bruce Springsteen,” she continued. “Full of energy and spirit, she always combined her impressive breadth and depth of antiques knowledge with a lifelong passion to make the world of collecting accessible and fearless to all.”
She and her first husband, Martin Miller, co-founded Miller’s Antiques Price Guide. Her second husband, John Wainwright, and their three children and four grandkids survive her.