There has been some talk in the media as to which of the Royal ladies will get EIIR’s personal jewellery.
For both my grandmothers it seem to have been divided up amongst the daughters, grand daughters, daughters in-law and nieces. Without any set pattern, they seem to have gone by “oh, this will look good on you”.
, it’s yours.”
The oldest cuff links I have are from my maternal grandfather and a great uncle is the source of the second oldest cuff links.
(Are gold and precious stone encased cuff links jewellery?).
When my maternal grandmother died, I was given one of her diamond rings. I didn’t want it. I don’t wear jewelry, I don’t like diamonds, and I’d never seen her wear it so there was no sentiment attached. My daughter didn’t want it either, so my mom “bought” it from me and the money went into my daughter’s college fund.
Now, my 88-y/o mom is giving away her jewelry. Since my granddaughter was born in April, I told Mom I’d take a diamond ring to pass to her. My daughter, niece, and sisters all claimed some of Mom’s rings. No hard feeling anywhere.
I have a few rings from eons ago that I may try to sell because I know my daughter doesn’t like them.
We all wondered what happened to our mother’s jewelry after she died, especially a mother’s ring with the birthstones of her eight children and a larger center ruby, all authentic stones. We’re pretty sure she sent most of her good stuff away to one of those ripoff places advertising “We buy your gold and jewelry”, leaving behind a pile of costume jewelry junk that no one wanted. Thanks Mom!
My mom’s only “good” jewelry was her wedding ring and one opal ring. My niece got the wedding ring, because by the time my mom died, we sisters were old and didn’t really want it. My niece was in her 20s. I got the opal ring because my mom was superstitious about the opal “curse,” and I had an appropriate birth month that meant it wasn’t “unsafe” for me to have it. Again, my sisters didn’t care.
We all looked at it and people asked for stuff they liked. There were no conflicts. A lot was left over. She didn’t wear it that often, so there’s not a ton of sentimental value to the stuff no one wanted. I suppose we’ll sell it for pennies.
My Mom had a few nice pieces that she specifically willed to certain people, and as Executor I made sure that they went to the designated people, but the rest was garden-variety stuff, and I had a hard time getting rid of it. Even after it was picked over by family and friends, there was a lot left over. I donated it to her church for the “community sales” (basically a yard sale in the church parking lot).
There’s a dearth of female relatives in my small family, so I have things from a great aunt, an aunt and my mother, who also passed along a ring she had made from the largest diamonds in my grandmother’s wedding set. I sold a couple of my aunt’s rings because they are not at all in my taste, and had a large tear-drop shaped amethyst from another of those rings made into a pendant, which I like very much (it’s my birthstone).
I also have some costume jewelry one of my male friends begged me to take - he has a giant cabinet full of jewelry from his mother and his aunt, and he asked me to go through it and take what I wanted. I don’t think his aunt had any children and his mom had 4 boys, only one of whom is currently married to a woman so I expect most of it will end up at Goodwill or similar eventually. While some older costume jewelry (like Bakelite bracelets) are sought after, there’s an awful lot of it that holds no interest now.
The one thing I wish I had but don’t is a small gold tie tack that belonged to my dad - it was an owl with tiny diamond eyes. No idea what happened to it - it wasn’t at the house when we cleaned it out. I loved that owl as a kid.
Well, I am sort of the last person standing [or above ground] in my family, other than some cousins so I have it all, my great aunt Bessie, my grandmother, my mom, well, everything accumulated on my dad’s side of the family [my mom was born amish and is estranged her family for going english]
Some things I am keeping - a jade ring set in gold that was used by a Chinese family to secure a loan from my grandfather [he bought trucks, cars and boats to evacuate them from Communist China to Taiwan. Never got all the money back, but I now have a hella nice jade ring. I also have one from Tiffany in platinum with diamonds that isn’t as nice but I think I may sell that one.] I have a sapphire, pearl and diamond pareur [a broach that can be used as a pendant by hooking it to the pearl necklace, a bracelet and suchlike] that I am probably keeping for odd ultra dressy occasions.
I have a rather sizable amount of random jewelry ranging from leftover gold bands [like wedding rings, no idea of the provenance but some of them look to be quite old] and a shoebox sized jewelry box of that funky sort of midcentury stuff that I need to put into sets so I can ebay them [or at least send them off to auction] I may keep a handful of stuff, but I rarely wear jewelry.
My Daddy loved nice watches. Me and 2 brothers split them up. I’m sure I got the lower rated ones.
I wanted the ones he wore daily.
I have his wedding ring and my Mother’s band and engagement ring.
My Sister’s didn’t care to sit down and look through it. So I got all the junk jewelry as well.
I have a very tiny baby ring that my Daddy wore. It looks gold. But I’m not sure.
When Mom died, we gave her wedding ring to her grandson’s wife and her engagement to her granddaughter. I took her opal ring and my grandma’s gold wedding band. My sister got the sterling flatware. I have grandpa’s gold Masonic ring with the large uncut diamond and his gold watch fob. My family is/was not into jewelry.
Dad sold mom’s wedding ring to a local jeweler. I went to go rescue it when he died, which was not long after he did that, but it was already melted and the stone resold. I still have some of mom’s jewelry (including a Mikimoto pearl necklace), and a few items from dad, like his watch and a couple of rings. I suspect after mom died he sold or otherwise got rid of most of mom’s items. I currently have no plans for any of these, but they are not taking up a lot of space so any decisions are just on permanent hold.
The one item I have not located from the few boxes I have left from those days is our family menorah, which, to me would be the most valuable item. After dad died I was left to clean out his apartment, on somewhat a deadline with his landlord, and in the mean time his apartment was being shown to prospective new tenants. It was a chaotic week. I suspect the menorah was lifted during one of the showings. I’d trade all of their remaining jewelry for that one item.
My sister got the sterling flatware, too, and my other sister and I got her wedding china. Orange blossoms, ha! Last year, I sent the china to my niece, but my sister gave us the flatware. We still have it, but I imagine we’ll probably send it to my niece, too. Or maybe my nephew, if he cares.
There were three heirs when my mother died. We searched through the house, piled the jewelry on a table, and took turns picking pieces. Things nobody wanted went into the yard sale. We mostly sold the coins and split the payment. One or two coins went to someone who was interested.
The teeth were sold with the coins. We researched and found out that for odd gold or silver the coin shop gave the best price. The pawn shops were medium. And the “here’s an envelope, mail in your dental gold and other misc.” companies were worst.
Mom had mentioned wanting us to pull her gold-capped teeth, but by then we knew how little we would get for them and decided not to ask for that.
My daughter has my mother’s pearls. I have my stepfather’s jewelry and box. He was a bartender, so lots of cufflinks and tie bars. Also, his BPOE ring. The only one of real interest are the cufflinks made from jade and real gold nuggets, and an ivory tie bar. Maybe an antique store would want it, but nobody wears that stuff nowadays, so none of my kids are going to appreciate me leaving it to them.
From one grandmother who had lots of kids, each adult child was able to pick out one piece of jewelry to keep, and the others went up for sale. A disputed piece, great-grandmothers diamond ring (known as The Rock) was valued and none of the family wanted to or could afford to buy it and pay shares to the others so it was sold with profits split.
For the other side, with only one child, Dad got all her goods and left it to Mom to cope. For her own reasons, she decided to hold it all back and do nothing and then leave it to her grandkids in her will. She never wore any of it. They are still in my older brother’s possession, having been put there when the grandkids were small. I reminded him that his nieces are in their twenties now and that the jewelry belonged to them. I don’t know if he passed it on. It irks me.
Big bro’s partner, though, is a creative guy. He took Mom’s costume jewelry and used it to decorate a framed photo of her and Dad. Very clever.
Yeah, I’m well aware of the laws concerning ivory. I have an ivory cribbage board and a few other things that were my mother’s. She got them before the newer laws were passed. You can sell fossilized ivory (mastodon), but that’s about it. You can own walrus tusk that you find on a beach, but you can’t sell it unless you’re Alaska Native.
I bought a nice piece of carved mammoth ivory. Rather to my surprise, you can distinguish it from elephant ivory with about 2 minutes of training. The grain runs differently.
When a relative of mine died, she left behind a ton of costume jewelry.
My sister took it all apart and arranged it into a bunch of mosaics. It was a good way for everyone to have something from her that can be displayed instead of ending up with some cheap jewelry sitting in the back of a sock drawer.
