Does a Heirloom Really Have to Be Ultra-Expensive?

[mcmsinger]

I mean why is it the consensus from the impressions I get that a heirloom is expected to be very expensive. I mean like mega-expensive... The cost can buy you 10 new Bentleys.

Can't a heirloom be a modest $5000-10,000 dollar jewelry piece?

It's the family history and sentimental value behind a jewelry piece which makes it a heirloom in my opinion. Not the price tag.

Your thoughts?

 

[patricias]

I've inherited my grandmother's wedding set. My grandfather paid $57 for her ten-point engagement ring in 1937. It's probably not worth much more than that now, and I treasure it.

 

[JewelFreak]

First, a small English lesson -- an heirloom. Unless you pronounce the "h" which I've never heard done.

Of course heirlooms needn't be expensive or valuable except in the heart. I wear my mother's half-eternity wedding ring for which they paid $125 in 1943 & it isn't much more valuable now; the diamonds aren't very good. I love it. My grandmother left me her purse with a sort of tapestry covering -- I doubt it's worth $5, but inside in her handwriting is a scrap of paper saying, "This purse is for Laurie, please." I loved her with all my soul & it is worth more to me than money.

Families hand down things of very little intrinsic value all the time. Watch Antiques Roadshow -- you see it there.

--- Laurie

 

[LadyMaria]

There was a documentary about royal jewels where Queen Margarethe of Denmark said, "We don't count the carats, we count the centuries." If a queen looks more at the story behind the piece than the cost, then I suppose the common folk can too.

 

[maccers]

From wikipedia:

heirloom: a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations.

Like others have said, an heirloom is something that has been in the family a long time, passed down the generations. That's the most important aspect. I do know what your saying about the impression heirloom jewelry pieces needing to be very expensive. I don't think it's so much that it has to be expensive but rather it has to be well-made so it can stand the test of time. Of course, many people take great care with their jewelry and those pieces will last generations.