You can picture one object being placed from an older hand into a younger hand, again and again, always inside the same family. Nothing is bought and nothing is sold. The thing simply keeps travelling downward, and what makes it precious is the line of people who held it before.
From the word’s history
Middle English heirlome, from heir plus loom, where loom once meant a tool or implement: literally the tool that goes to your heirs. The modern word no longer needs to be a tool, but the handing-down is still inside it.
中古英語寫作 heirlome，由 heir（繼承人）加上 loom 組成，而 loom 在更早的英語裡指「工具、器具」。字面就是「留給繼承人的那件器具」。今天它可以是任何東西，但「傳下去」這件事還留在字裡。
Wiktionary entry for heirloom (local kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1168885805): Middle English heirlome, by surface analysis heir + loom.
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