Has anyone discovered that a 'priceless' family heirloom is actually worth very little?

NBLondon

TripleH said:

Yes, we had what we thought was a Monet. Turns out it was only a Cezanne.

We had a Stradivarius and a Picasso.


Mind you, Stradivarius was a terrible painter and a Picasso violin is a really weird shape....

TBagpuss

No, although we did recently discover a (relatively) valuable picture 

My aunt had taken a selection of pictures from our late grandparents home with a view to re-using the frames. None of the pictures my grnadparents had up were valuable (mostly printes of famous paintings) but my aunt recently got around to taking the old prints out of the frames, and underneath the faded Constable print found a different picture which while still a print, is signed and apparently by someone who is currently quite collectable, so the print is worth a couple of thousand pounds  (it would be worth a lot more if we had the other one, as apparently it's half of a pair, but none of the other frames has yielded anything, so either my grandparents never had the other one, or it went to a charity shop hidden undder another old picture when the hosue was cleared! 

My parents have a lot of silver cutlery - came to my dad rather than his elder brother, because he has a son, but my brother chose to change his surname when he got married so even if he wanted vast quantities of mnogrammed cutlery it now has the wrong initial on it!  I think some of it is actually silver rather than silver plate,but none of it worth much. It comes out ocassionally for big gatherings 

Lavendyr

TripleH said:

The true priceless heirloom is the history behind your family.

This is worthless (in that it has little resale value to others).

We have no 'fiscally valuable heirlooms' that I am aware of. I am none-the-poorer for that.

Thank you! Literally the point of describing an heirloom as priceless is that it doesn't matter what it's worth financially because you wouldn't sell it for any money - so the question seems very odd to me. Perhaps priceless was the wrong word to use, @MSE_Laura_F - "valuable" seems more accurate. 

Silvertabby

Lavendyr said:

TripleH said:

The true priceless heirloom is the history behind your family.

This is worthless (in that it has little resale value to others).

We have no 'fiscally valuable heirlooms' that I am aware of. I am none-the-poorer for that.

Thank you! Literally the point of describing an heirloom as priceless is that it doesn't matter what it's worth financially because you wouldn't sell it for any money - so the question seems very odd to me. Perhaps priceless was the wrong word to use, @MSE_Laura_F - "valuable" seems more accurate. 

My late mum's cut glass fruit bowl probably isn't worth £20 - but it's priceless to me because I know how much she treasured it.

Ditzy_Mitzy

All I can say to my ancestors is, after Bob Hope, 'thanks for the memories'.  They had nothing but were great storytellers on both sides.  I have been able to build fairly accurate models of the '50's English seaside and industrial East Midlands in my imagination using them, which are nice things to have.  

Possessions?  Little of note: a couple of war medals (my father's father pawned his), a brass badge captured from a German, photographs and diaries and a box of olive forks as testament to working class aspiration.  

Alanp

NBLondon said:

TripleH said:

Yes, we had what we thought was a Monet. Turns out it was only a Cezanne.

We had a Stradivarius and a Picasso.


Mind you, Stradivarius was a terrible painter and a Picasso violin is a really weird shape....

I remember the Tommy cooper sketch when he did this, smashing the violin through the painting….