There’s a thread in MPIMS Is Bequeathing An Heirloom So Last Century? IN that thread, Sattua said that the smaller the heirloom, the more chance someone will want to take it, with all the moving about people do that make old furniture heirlooms so cumbersome.
I would like to know what heirlooms people DO appriate and take with them when they move. And if those heirlooms are about personal memories, or if they get bequeathed in return to the next generation. Just because you like Grandma’'s old electric mixer to because it treminds you of how you made cookies at Grandma’s house does not guarantee that your daughter will like the mixer for the same reason, unless you also baked together.
I’ve got a hunch that engagement rings, china and silver tableware are less popular then the people bequeathing them, seem to think. But to be sure, I include a poll.
I hope your hunch is wrong, because my future son-in-law is plotting to give my mother’s engagement ring to my daughter today! (Also, I have, wear, and love an engagement ring that was a gift from my grandmother-in-law to my mother-in-law, and then to me.) Of course, I’m also supposed to choose between three sets of china and two of silver, and I’m not looking forward to that… When do I use china and silver?
Between us, my husband and I have a few heirlooms we cherish - paintings from his grandmother, a rocking chair from my father, some cookware from my great-grandmother and grandmother, and a WWII German helmet that my grandfather-in-law collected on a battlefield in North Africa, and had painted as a souvenir later - it has the names of all of the places his engineer battalion passed through, from Algiers to Berlin. (Plus, under the brim: “Signorina Engreshetta D’Andrea ‘Mama Mia!’” I’d dearly love to know that story!) Very cool. I used my great-grandmother’s iron skillets nearly every day, the paintings are hung about the house, and Daddy’s rocking chair has rocked the grandbabies he never got to meet. I enjoy these things.
Grandmom had a fine antiques store and kept a lot of the really nice pieces when she retired. She and I were very close, I even lived with her for a year after college and we had a lot of time to talk about many of those pieces and just antiques in general. I was given some of her estate when she passed and will be left more when my parents and aunt pass. This fine old Windsor chair with burled wood is one of my favorites and I remember us visiting about it and how she wanted me to have it someday. The slanted seat is very rare and it would be worth keeping even if the sentimental value wasn’t there. There’s also the old Victrola we pulled out of her garage and listened to Caruso on. There’s a gorgeous Pennsylvania Dutch hutch, a spectatular corner cabinet, a ton of pewter plates and pitchers, my grandad’s law books, arrowheads we found in her yard and by the huge pecan at the creek where the Indians camped, coins she and I found together, etc. It all means so much more because it reminds me of her.
ETA: Oh yeah, when my grandad passed when I was twelve I was given his old Remington Browning shotgun, which meant the world to me. It was the only one I ever owner for probably 30 years and it’s still my favorite today.
I have a brooch from my husband’s grandmother, not my style at all, but I see it every time I open my jewelry box and I remember her, and I have a plethora of crocheted stuffed animals from my great-grandmother. Acrylic yarn and acrylic stuffing means they are machine washable and will probably last to go to my great-grandchildren. We do have some larger things, a large painting, bed frames, a dining set, etc, but thats because a family member’s house was liquidated while we were looking for new furniture, and we’re not picky about style. I don’t really see it as “an heirloom” until it passes to a third generation from the buyer/maker. Otherwise, it seems like just gifts from your parents/grandparents.
My great grandfather was a carpenter named Duck. I have a wooden napkin ring he made which is in the shape of a duck and is also the letter D. It doesn’t fit any of your categories and I cherish it.
Jewelry is always welcome. I have a Om pendant from my grandmother which is 24K gold…a rare commodity since gold is usually not pure. To combat the softness it’s very thick and heavy. I do want to pass it on to someone in my family eventually but right now I’m still wearing it.
My SO has a brooch from his grandfather, however, which is incredibly dated. But he has fondness for it, even though he will never wear it. He wants to pass it on to his nephew. I suggested he have it melted down and refashioned or even trade it in for something more modern but he refused…seems totally silly to me to just keep it in the vault and never, ever wear it. Is that really what grandpa wanted? But it’s not my heirloom, so whatever.
I mentioned it in the other thread, but my engagement and wedding ring were my grandmother’s. I love them (although free was nice too!)
It’s actually a little longer story than that - Grandma gave my mom her rings when she could no longer wear them, a few years before she died. The engagement ring had obviously been reset (in a pretty hideous 80’s setting.) After she died and my mom and I were going through her things we found what must have been her original setting and I took it and set a lab emerald in it and wore it on my middle finger. When I got engaged I just had it resized for my ring finger and my mom gave me the wedding ring. They don’t really match, though - they were inexpensive in the 30’s. But they don’t look like anybody else’s rings and the setting is low so it doesn’t snag, which I love. I do worry that the prongs will eventually break and would have rather not had yellow gold, but they remind me of my grandparents who were married 60+ years.
Plus I enjoy crafting silly murder mystery plot twists in my head where they misidentify my body because my wedding ring is engraved with somebody else’s initials. (The fun part is figuring out how I’d be unidentifiable but the ring left intact. My favorite is “serial killer’s trophy room” only the twist is that the killer is me!)
my dad just last week gave me his M-1 Carbine with 30 mag clip, and a bolt action Mauser rifle with scope & clip that was grandpa’s. wood work on both amazing - nothing like today
I shot these many years ago as a kid, with dad and brother (bro died 2009).
I have a dresser that has been in my family since approximately 1860. My very classy great-grandmother wrote the names of the various owners of the dresser on the back in permanent marker, along with the dates of ownership. I think I’m the seventh owner. I love having that piece of history in my room.
Probably my favourite, and the one I ticked in the poll, is my great-grandmother’s jade ring. It’s a 21st birthday present tradition for the eldest daughters, and it’s a very pretty green.
We have beautiful handmade desk, made by my grand-FIL. I loved him very much, and am sitting behind the desk now, so that’s a lovely reminder.
My parents have some lovely heirlooms I would be very proud to one day have. Especially my great-great-great-grandfather’s paintings. He was an influential impressionist and has some really beautiful works. No way would I go for the small stuff over his paintings. If I inherit those I’ll just have to have a house big enough to accomodate.
Our extended family came near to breaking up into feuding parties over grandmother’s antique music box. This was a DOOZY of a box! The size of a small coffin, with astonishing and intricate inner works. The studded cylinders were bigger than baseball bats! The ornamental little hammers were made to resemble bees (!)
Grandmother died, and one of the aunts insisted that the music box be sold, and the money evenly divided. Most of the rest of us wanted it kept in the family, and we didn’t even care by whom. Leave it with Uncle A, or Aunt B, or any of the grandkids, or any of the cousins. Just KEEP it, so that the rest of us, once in a while, might visit and be entertained.
Alas, sold. I got a couple hundred dollars out of the deal. Sigh… Relatives!
(But I did get to keep my grandfather’s opera hat!)
My great-grandmother left her engagement ring to her eldest daughter (my grandmother) who wore it always and left it to her eldest daughter (my mother) who wears it always. My mother will leave it to me, and I will leave it to my eldest. My mother says the ring makes her think of her grandmother, and it makes me think of mine. I’m sure my daughter will associate it with my mother, since she is the one that wears it. I like the way the chain extends from generation to generation, not just from mother to daughter, but from grandmother to granddaughter as well.
The number of things I have in my home that came to me from relatives is quite absurd. Some of it is with me just because no one else wanted the things and I couldn’t stand to see them go out of the family.
It’s hard to pick favorites, but for sure one is a framed engraving that my maternal grandfather liked, others my maternal grandmother’s cast iron skillet and my favorite great-auntie’s beaded flapper bags. Not the most valuable or even most beautiful but good juju.
I doubt my kids will want it all or even half of it all. But my oldest daughter surprised me by asking that I keep a dreadfully gaudy cocktail ring of her grandmother’s intact (versus making it into something more wearable for her).
Oops, sorry - I missed this question, thanks to a horrible stomach virus (but I don’t have to lay down to zip my jeans now… Yay?) She had already said yes, they just didn’t have a ring yet. And she loves the ring. And I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the wedding never happens, because, while I love my daughter with every fiber of my being, I must admit that she’s a bit of a flake. And only 20 (much too young to get married. Ask me how I know!)
I love my heirloom furniture and china, although my taste runs to vintage/antiques anyway so that probably helps out. I had both of my grandmothers’ dining room sets, which is challenging in a house that only has one small dining area, and so I was thrilled when it turned out a cousin wanted one of them. I would have lost sleep over it if I had ended up having to send one outside of the family.
My heirloom jewelry story is very sad. Well, sad to me. My great-grandparents arrived in this country with very little by way of money, but managed to bring over a few family pieces of jewelry with them from the Ukraine. They went to their oldest daughter, my great-aunt who didn’t have any children. She always talked about distributing the jewelry to the girls in my generation. When she passed away, her husband was devastated (obviously) … and boxed up all her stuff, clothing and jewelry, and donated it to the Salvation Army within days of her death because he didn’t want to see it in the house. We didn’t know that for a while, and of course, once we learned it, it’s not like we would or could complain. We all agree that the main sad moment is the passing of our aunt. None of us would be so grubbing as to whine about the jewelry.
It was fairly crazy news, though, after a lifetime of seeing it and hearing about the family history of various pieces. It’s always hard to tell people this story without it sounding like we really wanted to get our greedy paws on valuable jewelry – it was all about holding on to something tangible from our family’s history. Nothing else at all came from Europe except for these pieces. Her husband was a very nice man and I believe he had no idea the jewelry was important to anyone else.
On the flip side, I have another aunt who has no children, but does have an especially creepy collection of china dolls. Like, rooms full of dolls (I think there was an X-Files episode about a character like this). She refers to this as my “legacy” and frankly, I live in terror as a result.
My grandmother kept an orange candy dish on her back porch. It was always filled with pillow mints, lemon drops, or peppermints. We grandkids would try to lift the lid quietly, to sneak the candy, and I didn’t realize until I was an adult Grandma knew all the time what we were doing.
She’d had it as a gift from a school board, back when she was still single and teaching in a one room school, circa 1923.
I have that dish now and it’s my most precious physical possession. If I had to run for my life, and could take just one thing(apart from my pets), it would be that simple, cheap, orange candy dish. The memories it gives are, literally, priceless.
I use my great-grandmother’s engagement ring, and I love it dearly.
It’s a wonderfully unique ring. We think it is from the 1960s, but it has a classic Art Deco elegance. I’m not a fan of ginormous diamonds, and I’m grateful that having an antique ring gets me out of the whole “whose diamond is bigger” competition.
Plus, for a new family, free is a good price. There really isn’t anything not to love about it.
I have a hideously orange asian-bronze-art 70’s shoebox-sized formica jewelry box from my grandmother, and it holds an incredibly treasured posession - about sixty years of mis-matched buttons, salvaged from various articles of clothing that broke, got discarded, or just appeared from some place. I can’t tell you the number of hours I spent as a child sorting that box, arranging them, seeing the new shinies that appeared in there. Its worth about a buck fifty, but to me its priceless.
I’ve got the clock that my grandfather taught me to tell time on. When his possessions were being split up, everyone else had a bad association with the clock, so I avoided the frenzy by snagging that and pronouncing myself satisfied.
