The designer Pamela Howard recalled how these scales were assembled from two old, cracked brass bowls, possibly Chinese, that she found in a junk shop in London's Lisson Grove and which the props department of the theatre assembled using old chain and a balance from old scales or a clock. The gaffer tape, cotton thread and triangle of wire were all part of the way the scales were put together at the theatre, under Pamela Howard's instructions. She felt that she was unusual at the time for wanting to use old, 'found' objects in her theatre design for properties rather than newly designed made objects. A wooden stand was originally made on which they were suspended, but this does not appear to have survived.