heirloom

Besides being too expensive for the trash, it had developed the veneer of a family heirloom.

For weeks, they’ve been scouring their homes and cracking open their safes to retrieve vintage necklaces, family heirlooms and other expensive pieces containing the precious metal that can be melted for cash.

It was inevitable that in a family whose heirlooms were stories, not material objects long lost in refugee camps, someone would become a writer.

Despite growing concerns about the effect it could have on our health, braiding is a precious heirloom for this family - and for many other black women - passed down from generation to generation.

Historians think it might have been an heirloom or diplomatic gift.