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What makes something an heirloom?

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Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#11

Post by codpiece »

pwpw wrote: post #5

I recently inherited the Minolta X-700 and Nikon F4 film cameras from my grandfather who is now quite old and nearing the end of his life. Neither had been used in a long time. I gave them a good cleaning and purchased some film. Besides using disposable cameras when I was younger, I had never shot on film with a proper camera. I have grown up admiring beautiful photos of animals and nature printed on the walls of my…

What a beautiful story. I have a similar one, but never thought of recapturing the photos. Nice idea. You certainly honor and deserve the heirloom, and I wish you well.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#12

Post by codpiece »

whartung wrote: post #9

I have two notable pieces that stand out from my father that I consider heirlooms. One is actually a gift, souvenir he gave me. The other just something of his I took when he passed. The first is a Plankowner belt buckle he received from the SSN USS Olympia. He was not in the Navy, but, rather a contracted engineer along for the maiden voyage doing things he could not talk about. The other is a yellowed, framed poste…

That is so cool!

I have an image of a photo of my dad in front of the NASA Crawler, but it was lost in a flood. He did navigation systems and the photo was from the launch of Apollo 8.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#14

Post by matthewfcarlson »

For someone who wants to create heirlooms today, how would you go about it? Something sturdy and well made, but not so valuable that it’s tucked away into a box (like the Rolex in the article). The watch that I rock today (a smart watch) is well made but I don’t see it being useful in 50 years much less 20.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#15

Post by lmm »

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #14

For someone who wants to create heirlooms today, how would you go about it? Something sturdy and well made, but not so valuable that it’s tucked away into a box (like the Rolex in the article). The watch that I rock today (a smart watch) is well made but I don’t see it being useful in 50 years much less 20.

Stuff in general is a lot cheaper than it used to be, and there's been a kind of hollowing out of the middle - everyday-use things are cheap enough to be disposable, so almost by definition anything sturdy is likely too expensive to use. (If you look at medieval wills, even shirts or crockery were valuable enough to pass down; if you go back a few decades then everyday furniture was expensive enough that you would avoid buying new if you could).

The only things I can think of my friends having that are valuable enough to pass on without feeling "expensive for the sake of being expensive" are Patagonia jackets, and even then it's hard to imagine one of them becoming an heirloom - while they are well-made, the price is partly because of the cutting-edge materials which will likely become cheaper and more effective over time. (And Patagonia specifically seems to be headed in the Rolex direction of becoming a luxury brand).

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#17

Post by Aloha »

pwpw wrote: post #5

I recently inherited the Minolta X-700 and Nikon F4 film cameras from my grandfather who is now quite old and nearing the end of his life. Neither had been used in a long time. I gave them a good cleaning and purchased some film. Besides using disposable cameras when I was younger, I had never shot on film with a proper camera. I have grown up admiring beautiful photos of animals and nature printed on the walls of my…

When you can, or feel up to it, try some Kodak Ektar.

You'll like it, its much less grainy than the Portra with better color registration.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#18

Post by Brajeshwar »

Not really an "Heirloom" but something of the sort of Nostalgia (Time Capsule items); I'm thinking and planning of building/creating a museum of assorted items that I have owned and used. Unfortunately, this idea came after I have destroyed or lost quite a few interesting items such as my first walkman, bunch of audio cassettes, some very early DVDs, and my first 5.5-inch Floppy with my first QBASIC Programs.

Now, I do have some items such as the 1st gen iPhone, 1st gen iPad, the MacBook Air that came out of an envelope, amongst many others. Not yet so interesting at this time but imagine this after 2050s, 60s, or 70s or after I'm gone. Future family members, seeing them would definitely have a kick out of it.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#19

Post by Animats »

Somehow, this seems too much like a Rolex ad.

Bloomberg: "Rolex Prices to Drop Further as Supply Surges: Morgan Stanley. Pre-owned watch market flooded with Rolex, Patek and AP"[1]

Rolex is a strange business. One of their CEOs once said "we are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business." The price of Rolex watches has increased 5x over inflation since the 1950s, for much the same models. Rolex was at one time what you bought if you needed a rugged watch. Today, that market is covered by the Casio G-Shock, the choice of US soldiers.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-14/rolex-pri...

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