Tortoiseshell Heirlooms
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (325584)
Rockingham, Australia
February 21, 2017 5:41pm CST
While Vince was away yesterday I cleaned out a small cupboard and came across a handkerchief box and a mirror that belonged to my mother.
Tissues weren't invented when Mum was young. Handkerchiefs to be used at home were old pieces of shirts or sheets. For going out, bought handkerchiefs were used and the they were quite popular as gifts.
The items are made of tortoiseshell which hopefully is a no-no now but would have been perfectly acceptable then. These would be very old but I have no idea of their value. Maybe they are two a penny.
Edited after more research: I now don't think they are real tortoiseshell at all. It seems unlikely from all I've read.
15 people like this
18 responses
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
22 Feb 17
how do you put value on a family heirloom?
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@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
22 Feb 17
@JudyEv that's sad, being famil things, your sons dont yet have daughters?
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@JudyEv (325584)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Feb 17
@Jessicalynnt @Kandae11 Our sons won't want them and there is no-one else to give them to. And now I think they are probably 'faux tortoiseshell'.
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@JudyEv (325584)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Feb 17
@Jessicalynnt We are highly unlikely to ever have grandchildren. That's why it is becoming more difficult to know what to do with family 'stuff'. The son in Ireland will be restricted in what he can take home and I don't think the DIL will want anything unless it's valuable and the other son hasn't room even if he were more interested in having heirlooms. They're welcome to have what they want of course but I don't think they'll want much.
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@PatZAnthony (14752)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
22 Feb 17
These are very nice to keep. We have a few things that belonged to grandparents and those will probably always be in the family.
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@PatZAnthony (14752)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
22 Feb 17
@JudyEv Nieces? Neighbors you are really fond of? It would be nice if someone understanding the history would have these next.
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@JudyEv (325584)
• Rockingham, Australia
23 Feb 17
@PatZAnthony I've left my few bits of good jewellery to a god-daughter who has been good to us and always kept in touch. A lot of the young ones nowadays aren't very interested in old things. But I'll keep working on it.
@allknowing (130066)
• India
22 Feb 17
Gifting a handkerchief was a no no during our time unless there was a coin that went with it. I had a craze for kerchiefs and had a huge collection.
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@allknowing (130066)
• India
22 Feb 17
@JudyEv I used to hold it in my hand and display a bit of it for others to see (lol) I wonder what I used to do to blow my nose certainly not with that pretty hanky (lol)
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@LadyDuck (457822)
• Switzerland
22 Feb 17
In my opinion those are synthetic tortoiseshells. I know they were popular in the past, my grandmother had a comb, may be that now it is in some drawers in my mom's home. I have plenty of very nice embroidered handkerchiefs, this is what we kept in our handbag when I was a teenager.
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@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
22 Feb 17
My mum had a dressing table set.... but i'm not sure people have dressing tables in their bedrooms these days... just bedside cabinets... times change... 
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@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
24 Feb 17
@JudyEv yeahhh ... that's right ...
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@changjiangzhibin89 (16530)
• China
22 Feb 17
It looks like it made of hawksbill turtle shell ,not the tortoiseshell.Many frames are made of hawksbill turtle shell too.
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@averygirl72 (37716)
• Philippines
22 Feb 17
It's interesting to know. Maybe they are quite expensive
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@JudyEv (325584)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Feb 17
@averygirl72 @DWDavis @Happy2BeMe @Gillygirl After doing a bit of research I'm no longer convinced that they are genuine.
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@JudyEv (325584)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Feb 17
@Gillygirl I just did a searched and it seems there was a lot of 'faux tortoiseshell' around. I can't imagine any of the ancestors having much money so really that's all I'm going on. I might take to an antique place one day and ask if they'll have a look at it for me.
@lokisdad (4226)
• United States
22 Feb 17
You can take ti to an antiques dealer they might be able to tell you more about it. Maybe even a pawn shop might have someone who knows what it was and its value if any.
Either way it is cool. A friend of mines had inherited an estate and found a bunch of antiques he didn't know what to do with. So he planned on selling them but wasn't sure about their worth because they were so old,since my wife does a lot of resale he brought her the items and asked her to find out for him.
She took one look and said I don't have to look to know I can tell you right now this stuff is worth a pretty penny. A board game he had was worth $75 a razor $100 and a tiny pamphlet was $300 then he had furniture and some was worth above$200 just for a tiny rack. Now just looking at the stuff you would have never thought that.
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@JudyEv (325584)
• Rockingham, Australia
23 Feb 17
It can be hard to know what is worth money and what isn't. Your friend would have been surprised at the worth of the items.
@Morleyhunt (21737)
• Canada
22 Feb 17
I would expect they could be quite valuable. My mother had a dresser set that was Ivory. I'm not sure what became of it. I don't recall seeing it when we cleared her things.
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@teamfreak16 (43421)
• Denver, Colorado
22 Feb 17
You never know. Some collector might pay something for them.
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@Happy2BeMe (99399)
• Canada
21 Feb 17
What a treasure to have something of you mom's like that.
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@Happy2BeMe (99399)
• Canada
23 Feb 17
@JudyEv Yes I suppose that would be an issue. I never thought of that.
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@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
22 Feb 17
What a great thing to find! I have a couple of my Grandpa's old handkerchiefs, a couple of doilies that Grandma tatted, some magnetic earrings she bought back when they were all the rage (40s? 50s?) and a pair of her clip earrings. I gave Grandpa's bow tie to his great great grandson. I have a lot of precious little things of theirs, both sets of Grandparents. And their letters to me, those are priceless.
I love coming across things like that. It's almost as if you can feel them with you again. Sometimes I catch the scent of my mom's perfume, my Grandpa's hat, or other scents they carried daily.
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@JudyEv (325584)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Feb 17
Certainly it is lovely to have these things. I have lots of bits and pieces too.
@JudyEv (325584)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Feb 17
I'm not sure now that they are genuine tortoiseshell although that doesn't spoil the look of them.
