Pieces of personal history bring wealth of happiness
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Heirlooms are wonderful things. If you're lucky you may find that Grandma's brooch is worth $100,000 on Antiques Roadshow. Or maybe it's just a keepsake that was passed down through the generations, with no value beyond sentiment.
I have a number of keepsakes passed down to me from my mother who received them from her mother. My favorite is a hand-painted Japanese tea set. My grandfather won it, so the story goes, pitching pennies at the County Fair. He was dating my grandmother at the time, and his sister said she'd take that tea set. He said, NO! that tea set is for Lorraine. Many of the pieces are missing now, after one hundred and a few years. But I have the intact tea pot, the creamer and the sugar bowl without its lid, and several cups and saucers. It might be worth as much as $50, but to me it's invaluable.
Which brings me to this: In 1918 Herman Franz Liedgens, sensing the continuing danger in his native Germany, and trying to survive the continuing food blockade, left Germany with his wife and two young daughters for America. Like many immigrants from Europe, he settled in New York City in the Little Germany neighborhood on the Lower East Side. There he met a fellow German craftsman and started making exact replicas of wooden stage coaches, everything from a covered wagon complete with two oxen, to Napoleon's Coronation Carriage with hand-gilded gold.
It is said one of these hand carved coaches is in the governor's mansion in Albany, N.Y., although I've not found anything to corroborate this. The reason I'm so fascinated is that my son, who lives in England, is in possession of one of these coaches. Herman Liedgens was his great-grandfather. The coach that was passed down is a replica of the Birmingham Express, length 15½ inches, width 8 inches, height 9½ inches. It is equipped with a clock, horn, hand brake and leather seats. It is a work of art, and a priceless family heirloom.
The coach began life in New York City. It traveled to Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Minneapolis. This replica of the English Birmingham Express has finally found its way to England. It was a rocky trip with several broken pieces found in the shipping box. A couple hundred quid (pounds) were required to have it professionally restored, and it now proudly sits in its own glass case on a shelf in Southampton, U.K.
Long may it reign.
Robyn Near Albright is a Ripley resident.