Europe Divided into Its Kingdoms - John Spilsbury, 1766
Brighter version of puzzle previously posted.
The first of quite a few of the C19th puzzles, or dissections as they were often call then, that i've just posted .. and got a few more to come anon.
This is a reproduction of the first ever jigsaw puzzle, cut recently by a Spanish company, MJ2 Artesanos.
John Spilsbury, a mapmaker and owner of a print shop in Covent Garden is credited with creating the world’s first jigsaw. In 1766 he mounted a map on to a thin sheet of mahogany board and used a fretsaw to cut round the country boundaries and sold the pieces, boxed, for children to assemble.
Others copied his idea and while maps continued to be the most popular, other educational subjects followed, especially historical tableaux, among these the most popular being the kings and queens of England.
MJ2 have cut and included the pieces missing from , i guess, the only existing copy of the original, but left them blank. Interestingly, their cutting is not as good as the original cut looks to be!
I also saw that Wentworth produced a similar reproduction of this one at some time in the past but its not on their list now, as far as i can see.
Europe Divided into Its Kingdoms - John Spilsbury, 1766
Brighter version of puzzle previously posted.
The first of quite a few of the C19th puzzles, or dissections as they were often call then, that i've just posted .. and got a few more to come anon.
This is a reproduction of the first ever jigsaw puzzle, cut recently by a Spanish company, MJ2 Artesanos.
John Spilsbury, a mapmaker and owner of a print shop in Covent Garden is credited with creating the world’s first jigsaw. In 1766 he mounted a map on to a thin sheet of mahogany board and used a fretsaw to cut round the country boundaries and sold the pieces, boxed, for children to assemble.
Others copied his idea and while maps continued to be the most popular, other educational subjects followed, especially historical tableaux, among these the most popular being the kings and queens of England.
MJ2 have cut and included the pieces missing from , i guess, the only existing copy of the original, but left them blank. Interestingly, their cutting is not as good as the original cut looks to be!
I also saw that Wentworth produced a similar reproduction of this one at some time in the past but its not on their list now, as far as i can see.