Watch c. mid 18th century

This watch was crafted in silver by James Shearwood. While we don’t know the exact date of its creation, timepieces such as this speak volumes about the culture of their era. Time, once dictated by the sun and seasons, became increasingly regimented. This shift mirrors the rise of industrial capitalism and new forms of labor. The watch's ornate decoration, with its classical scene, tells us about the visual codes of the time, and the importance of the classics in the cultural life of elites. Pocket watches became a symbol of status and success. This was about the social order in the 18th century, where access to luxury items and even the control of time itself, was a privilege. To truly understand such an object, we might delve into trade records, to understand the circulation of silver, and into the history of clock-making as a craft. We see that art is not separate from these social and institutional contexts.