
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way'
The words are the opening lyrics of Pink Floyd's 'Time', a song which remind us to make the most of life, as before we know it "time is gone, the song is over."
So I'm going to make the most of my time on this post to show a treasured timepiece I own. It's a pocket watch with a silver fob and chain. It belong to my grandfather, but unfortunately I don't have a picture of him wearing it. I do have one of his father wearing his own pocket watch on his wedding day. He seems to have continued the habit into later life as in the few pictures we have of him, there's a chain and fob visible.
Pocket watches like my great-grandfather's were actually developed in the 16th Century and remained common until wristwatches appeared around the time of the First World War. Waistcoats usually had a watch pocket and the chain would be threaded through the buttonholes and secured with a fastener to prevent it being dropped. The pendant was usually more decorative than practical, and sometimes carried the arms of a club or society.
My Granddad's watch is a 'Smiths Empire', probably from some time after the Second World War.This was when the British company Ingersoll, joined with Smiths Industries and Vickers Armstrong, in setting up the Anglo Celtic Company Ltd near Swansea in Wales. The first model featured the same movement as the earlier British Ingersolls and were branded Ingersoll Triumph and Smith Empire. The watch itself is in a chrome case and could be from the 50s or 60s. It has a comforting ticking sound. I love the fact that it declares "Made in Great Britain" both on the face and on the internal workings.
Pocket watches would appear in paintings in the seventeenth century to declare the wearer's privileged social status, as in the case of the noblewoman in the portrait above by Luigi Primo. They also found their way into still lifes, as in the lovely example by Jan van Kessel de Oude. In this case they served to remind the viewer of the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures...which is where I began with the Pink Floyd song.
So, if you have the time, make the most of it and see what others have made of the prompt for this week's Sepia Saturday.