What do you own that have been passed through the generations?

At NfkDumpling what a wonderful family story and object. I read that after I posted, (naughty I know, I see complaints about people not reading others posts before they post) and your story is a reminder that heirlooms need not be monetarily valuable.

China figures, serving spoons, random odds and ends like baskets, sewing kits. I think ds2 will probably keep our bits and pieces as he is very sentimental, but ds1 and his wife are fairly ruthless and live minimally. Ds1 also has made many disparaging remarks on my taste so I doubt he’ll take any of my knick knacks either when I eventually kick the bucket.
A little sad thinking about that. Having cleared out 3 houses over the past few years, it’s remarkable how little myself, DH and our families have that is valuable or heirloom quality. (I’d say almost nothing at all!)

I treasure most the christening robe made for DH’s grandfather in 1866, used by various descendants including DGD1 but I suspect unlikely to be worn again as babies are no longer christened at six weeks old and it doesn’t fit anyone much bigger. And of course, the yards of embroidered lawn and lace insert are hopeless in modern baby carriers. Sad, though.

We also have a bird bath made for DH’s grandmother in 1935 for the garden of their retirement house. We have pictures of DH, our children and grandchildren playing in it, and I hope one of them will give it a future home.

A Georgian corner cupboard, a cut glass vase from the early 1900s, a set of vegetable dishes there on the table of the farmhouse in Somerset in a photo with fil as a very, young boy!

My great aunt's engagement ring, gate bracelet,canother great aunt's gateleg table which we use every Christmas, my granny's grandmother clock, dh's mum's engagement ring and her omega watch.

We also have a school book used by a relative of dh who was an MP and Mayor of Worcester.

Forgot to say in my post that i could have passed a truck load of things on that had been in the generations BUT i knew my son and daughter wouldn't want to be offloaded with it all.... i would far rather MY cupboards were loaded to busting than be hauled off to a charity shop and sold for peanuts.

Hmmmmm, where do i start ! Well, i have passed on items that are antiques that were my dads mum, then my mum had them then i passed them to my son.

Then when my mum passed away i had jewelry that she owned which i have put in separate envelopes and labelled for my grandchildren when i have departed this earth.

....and last but not least, my huge 6ft CHRISTMAS TREE hahahaha.... true, it has a story with it that doesn't belong on this thread so i just say the Christmas tree is being passed on to my daughter.

When my mother died we had to sell most of her furniture - there just wasn't room! I kept an Arts and Crafts oak side board that was my grandparents, which may be Belgian Nothing special to look at but I've always liked it. I also kept a copper jardiniere embossed with mythical birds. When I looked at it properly it turned out to be made by John Pearson in St Ives, a link with my grandfather in Devon perhaps?

Gt gt grandfather's mongrammed silver, dated 1780-ish. Granny especially valued some very plain, ordinary luncheon plates, with a wide green rim-they were in her mother's trousseau (married in 1865), and had belonged to HER mother on her marriage. No-one else in the family would look twice at them, and they are worth nothing, but to me they are so special. I've already given 3 of the 6 to my daughter, so that they are not all in one place, and she will have the rest on my demise. Most treasured possession - Granny's violin, well-known Italian maker, late 18th cent. She adored that instrument, and I love it too.

A Georgian, mahogany, bow-fronted chest of drawers. It came from a rectory in Leicestershire where seven generations of my ancestors were hereditary rectors. It's too big for my house really, and I probably won't be able to take it with me if I go into a retirement apartment. . Apart from that, I have my granny's engagement ring, dated May 1904, which I wear all the time.

My DM had a small collection of old blue and white plates. When she knew she was dying and had to go into the nursing home she asked me to bring the plates and said there was a special one which I had to keep. I thought it would be one of the valuable ones, but it was a chipped, cracked one with a badly done transfer pattern on it. It transpired it had belonged to my great grandmother. It was the only surviving piece of her first 'proper' plates, as opposed to the tin ones she'd grown up with in the slum where she lived. I've kept it and treasure it as a memory of where my family came from and a strong female line. My eldest DD and eldest DGD already know they will have the plate and will treasure it too.

My great grans' perfume burner that looks like a cottage and her cow milk jug. DH has his grandfathers bowls and medals for playing for his county and a hatbox full of photos of his great grandad and his father.

My genes

Only things I can use ,cheese dishes and bowls and jugs all from the mid 1800's .Facing clearing my MIL'S house next week and so not looking forward to it .Apart from her own collections there are my FIL's and he died 17 years ago.My SIL told us not to touch some cupboards because they have her things from before she married over 30 years ago.I can see issues looming

oh I have a couple of very old mirrors too

I have some babysham glasses and a collection of glass birds, a clock, a couple of old chairs that have been reupholstered, a tall boy which we use as a gin cabinet and some old handmade art stuff from my Mother's cousin. The only thing we have from my husbands side is a miners lamp

I have a couple of pieces of jewellery belonging to my great grandmother, a chair from my great grandfather and most precious are letters. There are some from my great grandfather - disintegrating, sadly, - and no fewer than seven bound volumes of letters written by my grand parents to each other during WWI and to their parents between 1899 and 1912.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I put my old teasets in the dish washer without any problem. also silver and silver plate cutlery and dishes. I do not have any bone or horn handles, except for the Christmas turkey carving set, and that has laready been put away ready for next Christmas.

All kinds of things passed down from families---too much !!
I stop at times thinking of poor D when she has to dispose of it, it doesn't seem fair but what are you supposed to do as I love it all whilst I'm here to admire most of it, including a tiny metal Hoover cleaner which was modelled on the present day one.
Old Dresden figurines made before the factory was destroyed.

And of course those old teasets might have looked lovely but, like the bone handled cutlery and the huge old carving set with silver mounted horn handles, you can’t put them in the dishwasher! My mum used them and washed them up by hand but I don’t have that level of patience!

So much, I cannot list it all. Most of our beautiful Victorian furniture, rugs, china, cutlery kitchen implements, even a set of curtains.

I am, and have always been a 'second-hand rose' and look to second-hand before I buy new, so when family members died and we were clearing their houses, my instinct was to see how much of their belongings, with all the memories that go with them should be kept and used. I am not one for clutter, so the incorporation of furniture into our home, meant our poorer quality old furntiure went to auction or charity.

There is a table that tells all you need to know about how our family works.In approx 1983, I bought a simple mahogany writing desk, which I used as a dressing table. Around 1988 I bought a more eleaborate desk and gave the desk to one of my sisters. She died in 1991 and my other sister, claimed the desk. In 1995, she moved house and my mother was delighted to have the table as a crafting desk in one of the bedrooms. The table stayed with my parents until my father died in 2007. At which point the desk came back to me and is again a dressing table in our holiday home in France.

However, I have no qualms with parting with stuff, once it is no longer needed and I have ascertained that neither of my children want it. I recently sold a beautiful pine dresser that belonged to my sister, and a set of chairs that came from my mother.

Interestingly, I had a long and lingering look at the Angel atop the GC Christmas tree last week. Passed down from Mum to me and now theirs. Many beautiful memories tied in with her. Oh yessss........

Bandy legs and buck teeth passed down from my father’s side.
My paternal grandmother’s engagement ring and a beautiful set of glass scent bottles she left to me.

I had quite a lot of stuff including two Victorian china tea sets, bone handled cutlery, big old copper kettle and coal scuttle, which I sold when we downsized and moved here. A shame to part with things but I didn't want to end up keeping them in the loft and then eventually my son having to decide what to do with them. I still have quite a few things including a Tudor 'bible box' which belonged to one grandfather, big stamp collection belonging to the other which I intend to sell, very old brass candlesticks passed down to my grandmother and the very useful and now trendy wooden trunk made by the village carpenter for my great grandmother's clothes etc when she left home to go into service in the 1880s. Basically I try to have as little 'stuff' as I can because my son is an only child with a demanding job and I don't want to burden him with the decisions I had to make when clearing my parents' house, so just a few things that have been passed down that he might like to keep and that's it.

My grandmother's tea set which she received as a wedding present.
My husband's grandmother's desk which lives in the hall. It has two drawers inside, filled with little useful things she put in there. Nails, tin tacks, paper clips. My daughter is to have it eventually.