British Jigsaw Puzzles of the 20th Century

by Tom Tyler, Sue Evan (Editor)

Chronicles many significant and exciting developments in jigsaw puzzle production during the 20th century.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published July 10, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was up very late with this book last night, but the truth is the text chapters are a bit dull even for a jigsaw fan like myself. But the pictures that make up the majority of the book? Those are awesome!

The text has chapters on jigsaw puzzle history, dedicated to such fields as "Societal History", "Technical Development", and "Commercial Pressures And Influences". Also a biographical chapter discussing the major British puzzle makers of the early days. All could have been more interesting if presented in a different manner, I think, but the author has a very dry style, and I skimmed more than I actually read.

But, again, I loved the section of color plates! I spent who knows how long examining the scenes, checking out the shape of the pieces, and being amazed at the ones that barely showed any seam lines. Most puzzles in the early days were made of wood and did not necessarily interlock. Besides that, the shapes of the pieces were not at all the standard type I am familiar with. The author kept saying how difficult the puzzles could be and I had to remind myself that yes, it would be difficult to work a puzzle with no idea of what the finished scene would be (boxes did not have guide pictures in the early days) and then to have pieces that look to my eye like they could go together in a hundred different ways?! 'Difficult' definitely fits!

If you look at the cover of the book, you can make out the borderlines of the pieces in the puzzle shown, but I am not sure you can get a sense of how squiggly the shapes are, how they make a person wonder about the amount of time needed to assemble that particular puzzle.

I have a couple of wooden puzzles, given as gifts about thirty years ago when I was puzzling more often. One came with no guide picture, and the pieces did not lock together. There were also some pieces called "whimsies" which were cut in shapes like an umbrella, a boat, or a dog. That was a fun puzzle to work, but tricky and the pieces drifted apart a lot. I have another not as fancy wooden one that did interlock and I never liked working it because the pieces were not easy to fit together. Probably a higher quality wooden puzzle would have been smoother but this one was more annoying than fun. I like a challenge but to me the whole point of a jigsaw is to be able to put it together at some point, and nobody should feel that they are being tortured during what is supposed to be a happy pastime.

I loved the quality of the scenes in the puzzles shown in the plates. There were some that showed cutaway views of famous ocean liners, others of the history of England and its royalty. All the pictures were appealing and I would have had a very difficult decision to make if I had a chance to pick one to try and solve, but I narrowed my favorites down to three: one from 1925 and the other two from the 1930's. Prince Rupert, The Harrier Hounds, and King Arthur On Dartmoor. What makes these the most appealing for me? Horses, of course! lol

I am going to take this out for Mother to add to her pile of Books To Read. I wonder which puzzle she would choose if she was given the chance to work one?

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is brilliant, i will enjoy reading the British jigsaw puzzles!