1954 · Williams
Big Ben
London riverside scene, houses of parliament silhouette, elizabeth tower with clock face, bridge spanning the water, blue river, red-orange sky with white cloud streaks and large green tree at upper left.
- Year
- 1954
- Maker
- Williams
- Type
- Electro-mechanical
- Display
- Backglass lights
- Players
- 1
Made by
- Art
- George Molentin
Vision analysis
On the backglass
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Backglass
- red
- yellow
- blue
- brown
Fingerprint: Enormous red arrow sweeping across sky, loaded with rainbow number panels 100 to 900. Houses of Parliament blue silhouette with Elizabeth Tower clock. BIG BEN title, MILLIONS text. Woman in red jacket, yellow skirt on green plinth. Red, yellow, blue backgrounds.
The most memorable element is the enormous red arrow sweeping across the sky, its belly loaded with a rainbow row of number panels from 100 to 900, each trailed by three white dots, under the single white word MILLIONS. A flat blue silhouette of the Houses of Parliament with the Elizabeth Tower clock anchors the middle, paired with the BIG BEN lettering to make the London landmark the subject. A striking woman in a bright red jacket and yellow skirt stands alone at the right on a green plinth, cut off by the frame edge. The stacked TWO, THREE, FOUR, TWENTY banners in the lower centre form an odd memorable ladder of words rather than numbers.
Setting
- London riverside scene
- Houses of parliament silhouette
- Elizabeth tower with clock face
- Bridge spanning the water
- Blue river
- Red-orange sky with white cloud streaks
- Large green tree at upper left
Symbols
- Large red arrow banner
- Nine coloured number panels
- Three white dots under each number
- Four stacked word banners
- Clock face on the tower
- Bridge arches
- Leafy tree
- White cloud streaks
Lettering
- Large red slab-serif capitals with blue drop shadow for the title; yellow cursive script with red outline above it; white sans-serif block capitals for millions; black capitals on coloured strips for the feature words
Themes
- London
- Big ben
- Westminster
- Riverside
- Fashion illustration
- 1960s
- Number progression
Title on it
- Big ben
Text on it
- MILLIONS
- 100
- 200
- 300
- 400
- 500
- 600
- 700
- 800
- 900
- Williams
- BIG
- BEN
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- TWENTY
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Woman | Tall slim adult woman at left in a plum-maroon knee-length dress with white collar and cuffs, dark hair, pale skin, smiling, holding a pale fan or folded paper at her side |
| Woman | Slightly shorter adult woman just right of her in a green coat or dress with a small hat, dark hair, pale skin, standing close beside the first woman |
| Woman | Adult woman at right in a bright red jacket with dark lapels and a yellow skirt, short dark curled hair, pale skin, posed leaning with one arm on a green plinth, cropped by the right frame edge |
Painted, cartoon-style backglass set in a light oak wooden frame with a stepped inner edge. Landscape composition with a diagonal split background: red-orange sky with white cloud streaks across the top, a broad yellow band in the middle, blue river water at the bottom, and a large leafy green tree filling the upper left corner. A huge red arrow banner curves across the top half, carrying a black-outlined row of nine coloured number panels reading 100 to 900, each panel in blue, magenta, red, orange, yellow, blue, green, magenta and red, with three small white dots beneath the digits. The word MILLIONS appears in white block capitals on the red sky at top left. On the right a yellow script maker name with red outline sits above BIG BEN in large red slab-serif capitals with a blue drop shadow. Centre-left is a flat blue silhouette of the Houses of Parliament with the tall Elizabeth Tower and its clock face, with a bridge spanning blue water below. Three cartoon women stand on the near bank: at left a tall woman in a plum-maroon dress with white collar holding a pale fan, beside her a woman in a green coat and hat; at right a woman in a red jacket and yellow skirt leaning on a green plinth. Bottom centre has four stacked banner strips reading TWO, THREE, FOUR, TWENTY. Condition: chipped and flaked paint along top and bottom edges, scratches, and a rectangular cut-out aperture at lower right.