Of Time, Love & Beauty

What makes a piece of jewellery an heirloom? Is it measured in monetary terms or in the number of years? Three jewellery experts weigh in with viewpoints that will make you rethink your jewellery-buying habits.

- CHARMAINE HO

There's nothing quite like a piece of jewellery that has been handed down through the generations. Imbued with a palimpsest of stories, such jewellery comes wrapped with layers of romance that accompany the history of one's family or loved ones. They are tangible links to the past, relics made in a bygone world that stand as a reminder of those who came before. For me, this came in the form of Peranakan kerosang brooches that my grandmother left me.

Made of gold-toned metal and studded with pink costume gems that have grown opaque with age and wear, it is the sort of bauble that would garner regretful shakes of the head from a jewellery appraiser. In my eyes, however, they are invaluable for the memories they evoke of joyous Chinese New Year family gatherings where my grandmother, dressed to the nines in her best baju kebaya, would move slowly around the room to hand out ang pows to her brood of grandchildren. There are 19 of us, making it nothing short of a miracle that she was able to leave me anything at all.

Yet, when it comes to my turn to gift them to my daughter, I'm well aware of the fact that she may not value them the way I do. She has no memories of her great-grandmother who passed away long before she came into the world.

That sense of nostalgia and sentimentality ends with me. And with no monetary worth to speak of, the kerosang may be tucked away inside a satin pouch as a quirky relic of her heritage. This led me to earnestly wonder what exactly makes a piece of jewellery an heirloom.