How about clocks?
Mid 19th century Seth Thomas mantle clock.
My mother's mother's family, named Brown, worked, for several generations, for the Marquesses of Exeter, owners of Burghley House and Burghley Park (in Stamford Baron, then Nothamptonshire, now Cambridgeshire) , as shepherds, cattlemen, and butchers.
The 2nd (1795 – 1867) and third (1825 - 1895) Marquesses were well known breeders of cattle, especially prize Jersy dairy cattle.
Sometme in the mid 19th century (I have not been ble to identify the exact date), a shipload of Burghley cattle wer purchased by a rancher in Texas, USA, to improve his herd. One of my relatives (I have not been able to figure out exactly which one) was sent, as cattleman, to accompany them, by ship to Boston and then, possibly by rail, to Texas. Having delivered them, he returned to Boston, where he had to wait a week or more for a ship back to England.
With money in his pocket, and time to kill, he bought a Seth Thomas mantle clock, and took it back to England. It passed to my great grandfather, Fred Brown (Brown-61525) (who was fond of clocks and watches), and then to my great uncle Arthur Brown. When my mother was a small child she often went to visit her uncle Arthur and aunty Betty, who never had children of their own. If she was upset, such as after falling and skinning her knee, they would open the front of the clock so she could see te pendulm swinging back and forth, which took her mind off the skinned knee.
About 30 years later, in 1959, when my sister and I were still quite young, we visited aunty Betty and uncle Arthur on trip back to England.. They lived in a "tied cottage" for Burley on the Hill (near Oakham, in Rutland) which had no electricity, and no running water. Heat was from coal fires, and light was from gas lights, and there was a hand pump for water in the kitchen.
We visited again about 5 years later. By this time electricity and running water had been installed. My mother mentioned that she had a sentimental attachment to the clock, and would be very happy if they left the clock to her. They said that they would be happy to give it to her now. They were happy to have an electric clock they didn't have to wind, and they didn't need it any more.
So we took it home to to the US, where my father had it cleaned and adjusted so it kept proper time, and he or my mother wound it every night for many years. My mother unfortunately died a decade before Arthur, but my father kept the clock running, and, when my father died it went to my sister. She still has it, but she does not wind it every day.
