Some people can’t see the forest for the trees. But Antiques Roadshow stars Leigh and Leslie Keno can’t see the trees for the burl, which they first began collecting when they were teenagers in upstate New York.
“There’s an amazing burl, bigger than a watermelon, growing on the side of a tree in Central Park, and whenever I pass by, I think about the beautiful bowl it could become,” says Leigh, sitting in his Manhattan townhouse one rainy afternoon. Resting on his lap is his most recent catch—a Native American burl bowl with its original, 200-plus-year-old surface intact. He caresses the baby-bath-size hunk of wood like a purring cat and admits, “I can’t keep my hands off it.”
