properties not persisting across requests

[Ken in Nashua]

Hi All,

I have page Home and a component Gallery whereby the page contains the 
component.

So I tell the page to house a variable itemsPerPage so I can persist it into 
the component and I rig the component so accommodate and retain the state of 
this variable.

Nothing get persisted or initialized and when I hit refresh any values I set on 
the select control get wiped out.

Are there limitation to using String, int, Integer ?

Home.java
    @Persist
    @Property(read = true, write = true)                              
    //@Parameter(required = false, cache = true, defaultPrefix = "50")  
    private int itemsPerPage;

Gallery.java
    @Persist
    //@Property(read = true, write = true)
    //@Parameter(required = true, cache = true, defaultPrefix = "50")
    private int itemsPerPage;

    @Component(parameters = {"clientId=itemsPerPageSelect"})
    private Select itemsPerPageSelect;
    
    @OnEvent(value = "itemsPerPageChange", component = "select")
    public Object onItemsPerPageChange()
    {
    }

nothing seems to work... ideally I would like to use Integer

Gallery.tml
                    <t:label for="itemsPerPageSelect">Items Per Page</t:label>
                    <select t:type="select" t:id="itemsPerPageSelect"
                            
t:model="literal:5,10,15,25,50,100,250,500,1000,5000,10000"
                            value="itemsPerPage"
                            defaultValue="50"
                            onchange="tapestry.form.refresh(this.form)"
                            />

I am having trouble with PERSIST, PROPERTY and PARAMETER... nomatter what 
combinations I try with initialized value or not I produce every app exception 
possible and if I do get it running... nothing gets persisted.

Any help is appreciated.
Best Regards and thanks
Ken