Do You Want Your Family Antiques?

Family antiques are often family treasures and sometimes family burdens. When a family saves everything and preserves everything through the generations, you end up with family antiques. These family antiques can be in the form of antique furniture, antique jewelry, antique books, antique photographs and even antique cars. But whatever you may inherit in the way of family antiques, along with the antique and its story, often comes a responsibility whether welcomed or not. When a family antique falls into your hands, you may be expected to hold on to the antique and pass it down to the next generation. This becomes more difficult as our society becomes more mobile.

Family antiques used to stay in one household, sometimes for generations and then finally be passed down to a grandchild, great grandchild, great, great grandchild, and in some families even through more generations. It was common in days past, for a family to take care of their possessions, cherish them and keep them and hope that someday after they are gone, when the items became family antiques, they would remain in the family and continue to be cared for long into the future. Some family antiques are the legacy of that family. But what if a bunch of Victorian furniture is your inheritance? What if a house full of family antiques is headed your way and you live in a New York loft filled with Art Deco furnishing? You don't necessarily want your family antiques, do you?

On the other hand, if the family antique you happen to inherit is a priceless painting or a memento from your beloved great aunt, then you will probably be thrilled when that family antique becomes yours. Sometimes three generations of family antiques are all that is left in the material world of your parents and their parents and theirs? Often, the heirs have to divide up the family antiques or sometimes squabble over them and ultimately sell them off because nobody can agree on what to do with all the family antiques.

Fewer and fewer families these days carry on the tradition of preserving furniture, china, art and nick knacks that become antiques and keep them in the family. Part of the reason may be that the quality of merchandise over the years has deteriorated and what is bought today won't last long enough to become a family antique. This is a sad statement, but true. So the dilemma of what to do with all the family antiques will be solved for the younger generations as less and less of them will be around to appreciate and keep for the next generation.

Antique Collecting News:

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