coastal.tours
Harrods
The Giudecca, Venice, c1935. 517 plywood pieces, 49 x 37 cm. Fully interlocking, cut up in four quarters with undulating edges, each further cut up in 9-11 slabs, forty in all, irregular grid cut within each slab. Harrods jig-saw puzzle, made in England. Probably manufactured by Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd.
Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd., are justly famous for their Zag-Zaw range, intricately cut puzzles with figurals (whimsies), either non-interlocking (push-fit) or interlocking with tiny earlets. But in the 1930s they also started producing excellent fully interlocking puzzles, without figurals, under the name 'Crazy Cut'. They can be easily recognized from the cutting style described above. As David Shearer points out on the Jigasaurus website, these Crazy Cut jigsaws were also commissioned by other companies for their promotional puzzles, sometimes uncredited.
This superb Harrods puzzle has the typical Crazy Cut style, and it is exceptional in that it is considerably larger than most extant Crazy Cut puzzles. As with all Tuck puzzles, the print, the plywood, and the finish are top class, and the side label on the box has the typical Tuck layout.
The box is a large flat pale red box with a pointillist ball motive and a removable lid, unmarked except for the Harrods logo and the words 'Jig-Saw Puzzle'. (I have posted a picture of the box separately.) This particular logo was in use around 1935.
The print is from a painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), 'The Dogana, San Giorgio, Citella from the steps of the Europa' (1842), which is in the Tate Britain museum. The text in the bottom right corner identifies the painting as 'The Guidecca' (sic), referring to the Giudecca island in the distance, or to the Giudecca canal separating the Giudecca island and the Dorsoduro peninsula, of which we see the Eastern tip, Punta della Dogana, in the right of the picture. Interestingly, the text also mentions that this painting is in the National [Gallery?], probably referring to the National Gallery of British Art, the name of the Tate Gallery before 1932.
In the painting, Turner has highlighted in white the two churches on the distant Giudecca island, the San Giorgio Maggiore (to the left) and the Zitelle (in the middle). The Europa hotel is now part of the Westin Europa and Regina Hotel, but from the present location of the hotel one cannot see past the Dogana towards the Zitelle, suggesting that the artist's viewpoint was further West, closer to the San Marco place, perhaps near the current location of Harry's Bar.
All in all it is more than likely that this is an early 1930s Crazy Cut puzzle manufactured for Harrods by Raphael Tuck & Sons.
Harrods
The Giudecca, Venice, c1935. 517 plywood pieces, 49 x 37 cm. Fully interlocking, cut up in four quarters with undulating edges, each further cut up in 9-11 slabs, forty in all, irregular grid cut within each slab. Harrods jig-saw puzzle, made in England. Probably manufactured by Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd.
Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd., are justly famous for their Zag-Zaw range, intricately cut puzzles with figurals (whimsies), either non-interlocking (push-fit) or interlocking with tiny earlets. But in the 1930s they also started producing excellent fully interlocking puzzles, without figurals, under the name 'Crazy Cut'. They can be easily recognized from the cutting style described above. As David Shearer points out on the Jigasaurus website, these Crazy Cut jigsaws were also commissioned by other companies for their promotional puzzles, sometimes uncredited.
This superb Harrods puzzle has the typical Crazy Cut style, and it is exceptional in that it is considerably larger than most extant Crazy Cut puzzles. As with all Tuck puzzles, the print, the plywood, and the finish are top class, and the side label on the box has the typical Tuck layout.
The box is a large flat pale red box with a pointillist ball motive and a removable lid, unmarked except for the Harrods logo and the words 'Jig-Saw Puzzle'. (I have posted a picture of the box separately.) This particular logo was in use around 1935.
The print is from a painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), 'The Dogana, San Giorgio, Citella from the steps of the Europa' (1842), which is in the Tate Britain museum. The text in the bottom right corner identifies the painting as 'The Guidecca' (sic), referring to the Giudecca island in the distance, or to the Giudecca canal separating the Giudecca island and the Dorsoduro peninsula, of which we see the Eastern tip, Punta della Dogana, in the right of the picture. Interestingly, the text also mentions that this painting is in the National [Gallery?], probably referring to the National Gallery of British Art, the name of the Tate Gallery before 1932.
In the painting, Turner has highlighted in white the two churches on the distant Giudecca island, the San Giorgio Maggiore (to the left) and the Zitelle (in the middle). The Europa hotel is now part of the Westin Europa and Regina Hotel, but from the present location of the hotel one cannot see past the Dogana towards the Zitelle, suggesting that the artist's viewpoint was further West, closer to the San Marco place, perhaps near the current location of Harry's Bar.
All in all it is more than likely that this is an early 1930s Crazy Cut puzzle manufactured for Harrods by Raphael Tuck & Sons.