The History of how jigsaw puzzles were first created and their evolution to modern day entertainment and leisure activity.
MGC's Custom Made Wooden jigsaw Puzzles and Fine ArtPresents Jigsaw Puzzles - A Brief History
Jigsaw Puzzles - Not just for children any more!
© 1997 by Anne D. Williams- ( reprinted with permission )
The origins ofjigsaw puzzles go back to the 1760s when European map makers pasted maps onto wood and cut them into small pieces. The "dissected map" has been a successful educational toy ever since. American children still learn geography by playing with puzzle maps ofthe United States or the world. The eighteenth century inventors of jigsaw puzzles would be amazed to see the transformations ofthe last 245 years. Children's puzzles have moved from lessonsto entertainment, showing diverse subjects like animals, nurseryrhymes, and modern tales of super heroes and Disney. But the biggestsurprise for the early puzzle makers would be how adults haveembraced puzzling over the last century.
Puzzles for adults emerged around 1900, and by 1908 a full-blown craze was in progress in the United States. Contemporary writers depicted the inexorable progression of the puzzle addict: from the skepticwho first ridiculed puzzles as silly and childish, to the perplexedpuzzler who ignored meals while chanting "just one more piece;"to the bleary-eyed victor who finally put in the last piece inthe wee hours of the morning.
The puzzles of those days were quite a challenge. Most had pieces cut exactlyon the color lines. There were no transition pieces with two colorsto signal, for example, that the brown area (roof) fit next tothe blues (sky). A sneeze or a careless move could undo an evening'swork because the pieces did not interlock. And, unlike children'spuzzles, the adult puzzles had no guide picture on the box; ifthe title was vague or misleading, the true subject could remaina mystery until the last pieces were fitted into place.
Becausewood puzzles had to be cut one piece at a time, they were expensive.A 500-piece puzzle typically cost $5 in 1908, far beyond the meansof the average worker who earned only $50 per month. High society,however, embraced the new amusement. Peak sales came on Saturdaymornings when customers selected puzzles for their weekend houseparties in Newport and other country retreats.
The nextfew years brought two significant innovations. First, Parker Brothers,the famous game manufacturer, introduced figure pieces into its"Pastime" brand puzzles. Figure pieces made puzzlesa bit easier to assemble. But the fascination of pieces shapedlike dogs, birds, and other recognizable objects more than offsetthe somewhat reduced challenge. Second, Pastimes and other brandsmoved to an interlocking style that reduced the risk of spillingor losing pieces. Pastime puzzles were so successful that ParkerBrothers stopped making games and devoted its entire factory topuzzle production in 1909. Following this craze, puzzles continuedas a regular adult diversion for the next two decades.
With the onsetof the Great Depression in 1929, puzzles for adults enjoyed aresurgence of popularity, peaking in early 1933 when sales reachedan astounding 10 million per week. Puzzles seemed to touch a chord,offering an escape from the troubled times, as well as an opportunityto succeed in a modest way. Completing a jigsaw gave the puzzlera sense of accomplishment that was hard to come by when the unemploymentrate was climbing above 25 percent. With incomes depleted, homeamusements like puzzles replaced outside entertainment like restaurantsand night clubs. Puzzles became more affordable too. Many of theunemployed architects, carpenters, and other skilled craftsmenbegan to cut jigsaw puzzles in home workshops and to sell or rentthem locally. During the 1930s craze for puzzles, drugstores andcirculating libraries added puzzle rentals to their offerings.They charged three to ten cents per day, depending on size.
Anotherimportant development was the introduction of die-cut cardboardpuzzles for adults. Mass production and inexpensive cardboardallowed the manufacturers to cut prices substantially. There wasa vogue for advertising puzzles in mid-1932. Retail stores offeredfree puzzles with the purchase of a toothbrush, a flashlight,or hundreds of other products. What better way to keep a brandname before the public than to have customers working for hoursto assemble a picture of the product?
The autumn of1932 brought a novel concept, the weekly jigsaw puzzle. The die-cut"Jig of the Week" retailed for 25 cents and appearedon the news stands every Wednesday. People rushed to buy themand to be the first among their friends to solve that week's puzzle.There were dozens of weekly series including "Picture PuzzleWeekly," "B-Witching Weekly," "Jiggers Weekly,"and (featuring popular films) "Movie Cut-Ups." Withthe competition from the free advertising puzzles and the inexpensiveweekly puzzles, the makers of hand-cut wood puzzles were hard-pressedto keep their customers. Yet the top quality brands like ParkerPastimes retained a loyal following throughout the Depression,despite their higher prices.
Indeedthe Depression led to the birth of Par Puzzles, long dubbed the"Rolls Royce of jigsaw puzzles." Frank Ware and JohnHenriques, young men with no job prospects, cut their first puzzleat the dining room table in 1932. While other firms were cuttingcosts (and quality), Par steadily improved their puzzles, andmarketed them to affluent movie stars, industrialists and evenroyalty. Par specialized in customized puzzles, often cuttingthe owner's name or birth date as figure pieces. Ware and Henriquesalso perfected the irregular edge to frustrate traditional puzzlerswho tried to start with the corners and edge pieces. They furtherteased their customers with misleading titles and "par times"that were unattainable for all but the fastest puzzlers.
AfterWorld War II, the wood jigsaw puzzle went into a decline. Risingwages pushed up costs substantially because wood puzzles tookso much time to cut. And as prices rose, sales dropped. At thesame time improvements in lithography and die-cutting made thecardboard puzzles more attractive, especially when Springbok introducedhigh quality reproductions of fine art on jigsaws. In 1965 hundredsof thousands of Americans struggled to assemble Jackson Pollock's"Convergence," billed by Springbok as "the world'smost difficult jigsaw puzzle."
One byone, the surviving brands of wood puzzles disappeared. ParkerBrothers discontinued its Pastime puzzles in 1958. By 1974, bothFrank Ware of Par and Straus (another long-time manufacturer)had retired from the business. The English "Victory"puzzles, easily found in department stores in the 1950s and 1960s,almost completely vanished.
Asthe true addicts of wood puzzles began to suffer withdrawal symptoms,Steve Richardson and Dave Tibbetts saw an opportunity to fillthe void. They founded Stave Puzzles, and within a few years hadsucceeded Par as the leader in wood puzzles. Indeed, Stave wentseveral steps beyond Par, by commissioning original artwork thatwas specially designed to interact with the cutting patterns.Experimentation with pop-up figure pieces led to three-dimensionalpuzzles such as a free-standing carousel. Over the years Richardson invented many trick puzzles that fit together in several differentwrong ways, but with only one correct solution. Stave emphasizes personalized puzzles and service, even remembering its customers' birthdays.
Stave'ssuccess with luxury puzzles convinced others that a market could be found, leading to a broader resurgence of hand-cut and custom puzzles. The last decade has brought many design innovations asnew craftspeople have turned to jigsaw puzzles. There are evensome wood puzzles cut by computer-controlled water jets or lasers. Puzzle aficionados of today can choose from a number of different styles of wood puzzles to suit their passions for perplexity. And quitea few are graduating from cardboard to wood puzzles, as they discoverthe satisfying heft of the wood pieces, the challenge of matching their wits against an individual puzzle cutter, and the thrill of watching a picture emerge from a plain box with no guide pictureon the lid.
About the author: AnneD. Williams, author of Jigsaw Puzzles, An Illustrated Historyand Price Guide (1990), is the leading historian of the Americanjigsaw puzzle. She has served as curator for two major museumexhibitions of jigsaw puzzles, Pieces in Place: Two Hundred Yearsof Jigsaw Puzzles (1988), and Cutting A Fine Figure: The Art ofthe Jigsaw Puzzle (1996), both based on her extensive collection.She welcomes more information about puzzle history for anotherbook she is researching; contact her at the Economics Department,Bates College, Lewiston, ME 04240. ( awilliam@bates.edu)
NOTABLE!!!: For many wonderful reference materials onpuzzles, Click Here!
Copyright © 1995-2019 - MGC's Custom Made Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles This web site was designed, created and is maintained by Mark