THESE office staff are at work a century or more ago in a busy but regrettably, unidentified firm, although the scene bristles with possible clues – at least three business calendars and two shelves of labelled box-files – but none are decipherable.

The only distinguishable fact is that it is 10.10am in the morning.

Notice two men standing at their desks, the office-boy in a stiff white collar extracting paper from the filing-cabinet, and the huge pile of skewered documents on the right on the desk behind the office-boy’s head.

Several telephones are visible but, but this is essentially an organisation running on paperwork.