THINGS FROM THE PAST

A selection of items from long before the conception of The Prisoner which could be considered Prisoneresque, with thanks to Craig Conley.

A "Be seeing you" sign from Colliers magazine, all the way back in May 17, 1919.

Not a Number? From 11 March 1922 article in The Children's Newspaper .

A vintage "be seeing you" hand gesture?  From Fliegende Blätter, 1925

"Decimal Six"! From "Two Trips to the Emerald Isle" by 'Faed,' 1888.

Vintage precursor to The Prisoner, in which Number Six hails a cab.

Number Nine here does not look like Virginia Maskell (from "Punch" 1857).

In "Fall Out," the Prisoner leaves things "at sixes and sevens," as it were. (From Punch, 1890.)

Even as a baby, he would not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. (This illustration, by William Donahey, is from The Green Book magazine, 1916.) The caption reads, "Number? Number, please?"

"Are you the gentleman who occupies Number Six"? From The Saturday Evening Post, 5 November 1904.

"Arrival" from Metropolitan Magazine, 1905. The caption reads, "The light flooded the apartment. It was almost a replica of my own studio."

From Around the World on a Bicycle by Thomas Stevens, 1888.

Number 2's signature chair? It's from the novel Loose Rein by "Wanderer" and illustrated by G. Bowers, 1887.

A Spanish Be Seeing You? From Face to Face with the Mexicans by Fanny Chambers Gooch, 1890.

When I encountered this old logo in a vintage book today, I first thought of The Prisoner episode "A. B. & C."! The logo is technically "A, C & B," as it's for the London publishers Adam and Charles Black.

"Are you a person or only a number?" From The Literary Digest, 1916.



Aristotle proved that the Prisoner was right about not being a number. From the Oxford translation.

Vintage illustration as a precursor to Rover hovering near the Green Dome. : http://www.oneletterwords.com/weblog/?id=24825

With thanks to Craig Conley for these items.