John Bly FRSA, (born 27 May 1939), is an antiques dealer, author, after-dinner speaker and broadcaster who is best known from the BBC's Antiques Roadshow TV program (UK).
Career
Educated at Berkhamsted School, Bly is also a lecturer, public speaker, restorer, valuer, fund raiser, editor and columnist. He was the presenter of the TV series, Looking At Antiques (1971-1972), had his own show for Anglia TV Heirloom (1975-1992), fronted BBC Crimewatch Aladdin's Cave (1984-1989), BBC2's Heirs and Graces (1989-1990), and was Furniture Specialist on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow (1979-2018)[1] and BBC4 Secret Knowledge (2013). His own production company, Posh Films with Lady Victoria Leatham, was responsible for the two-part TV programme Treasure Houses of Britain.
As a columnist, Bly wrote for the American Antiques Monthly (1975-1982) and, from 1989 to 2001, he had Q&A weekly features in the Saturday Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and The Lady. He has also contributed to magazines such as: Collectors' Guide, Antique Collecting, and lifestyle magazines, including networked Fish Media Group Ltd since 2007.
Bly's lectures include: Dupont Winterthur Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; University of Birmingham, Alabama; New York Historical Society; Palm Beach Historical Society; San Francisco Historical Society; Museum of Art, Milwaukee; Governor's Mansion, Springfield Illinois; Key West Museum; Rosary College, Chicago; Temple Sinai Sisterhood, New Orleans; Galesburg University, Illinois; V & A Museum, London; and visiting lecturer on cruise ships.
Personal life
Bly married Virginia Fisher in 1967, and they have two sons. Bly is a jazz historian and accomplished drummer. He has appeared on the BBC1 chat show Wogan in the late 1980s, and on Children in Need, playing a pair of antique silver spoons as musical instruments. He supports Cancer Research UK, Kids with Cancer, St Christopher's Hospice and two local Hospices at Home, Kids for Kids in Darfur, Asthma UK, and Children in Need.
Bly is a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company 1989, Honorary Citizen of New Orleans, Kentucky Squire, and a past-Chairman of the British Antique Dealers' Association.
