Watch Chain Locket 1935 - 1942

William P. Shearwood created this design for a watch chain locket using graphite and watercolor. Intended for practical use, jewelry like this also conveys personal and cultural meanings. Lockets were popular adornments during the Victorian era in both Europe and the United States. They were keepsakes, often worn to memorialize a loved one. Looking closely, we can see portraits sketched inside this design for a locket. They are intimate objects, usually worn close to the body, containing miniature portraits, locks of hair, or other mementos. The exterior view of the locket depicts what appears to be a grand estate. If this image is of Shearwood’s own home, the locket suggests that it was intended for someone of considerable means. Understanding the social lives of objects such as this one requires that the historian consult many different sources: paintings, literature, probate records, advertisements, as well as the objects themselves.