Original Jig-Saw Puzzle Club Princes St Hanover Sq London 805pc Map of Europe 3
(Update Dec 2024: Revision of article in BCD magazine (Spring 2023, no148 pg14) by Nicki Barker necessary after information from Anne Williams. Mr Ashley Rowe & Mrs Kathleen Rowe were proprietors - they were also known as Mr & Mrs Aldon Roen, and Aldon Studios was theirs.)
Maps are unusual in the stock of jigsaw libraries. This jigsaw lists the second address of the club, 27 Princes Street, Hanover Square, London W1 and the married couple Rowe (Ashley & Mrs Kathleen) as its proprietors. There is no stock number on the label. When sold in April 2017 it had 3pcmiss and 6 dated replacement pieces - from 1922 - 1927 (one illegible). The brown cardboard box has staples, running out from the side edges of the box lid (image not shown).
Original Jig-Saw Puzzle Club 805pc Map of Europe, 6repl, 33x23in. Complex pieces, oval knobs often with long necks.
Extract from Nicki's BCD Reserarch document:
Original Jigsaw Puzzle Club (London)
Founded 1909 –1930’s
Run by Mrs Aldon Roen, (Kathleen Rowe) 110 St Martin’s Lane, London - also 27 Princes Street, Hanover Square, London W1
Box: Early boxes are small 4” x 6” heavy duty brown card with printed sticker on top showing club and puzzle details and sticker on the bottom with handwritten list of borrowers, initialled K.R. and ?C.A.R., likely to be Kathleen Rowe. Later boxes are red.
Cut: Difficult. Early ones are push-fit solid mahogany with puzzle number stamped on some pieces. Later examples in red boxes are interlocking with many knobs per piece. High quality ply with number stamped on some pieces.
Examples:
- No B 67, 295 piece Black and White “Thursday”. 15.5” x 9.5”, push fit with some line-cutting (CLC). Solid wood
- “This is Alright”, interlocking. Very difficult.
- No B810, Marine Parade, Brighton 15” x 11” loopy cut, semi-interlocking and push-fit. Ply.
Comments: This was clearly a popular puzzle club with the example “Thursday” being lent out monthly at a cost of 2d.
Direct relationship with the club of the same name founded a year earlier in Cornwall. Both clubs are clearly very early examples of puzzle clubs in the UK.
The initials KA against borrowers could be that of Kathleen Rowe (see Cornwall Club).
There is an early jigsaw brand called Aldon, and the name of the proprietor of this Club hints that there might be a link between them - now confirmed.
Anne Williams found information about Aldon Studios from Games and Toys, a Feb 1917 Trade Magazine. It gave the address as 263 Regent St W, and described them as specialists in jigsaw puzzles, 'unique little figures cut in 3ply wood', makers of 'Eve' figures and 6d calendars.
An undated London Directory: "First Aldon Studios & Jig Saw Puzzle Club (Ashley & Kathleen Rowe, 24 Great Russell St WC )."
Original Jig-Saw Puzzle Club Princes St Hanover Sq London 805pc Map of Europe 3
(Update Dec 2024: Revision of article in BCD magazine (Spring 2023, no148 pg14) by Nicki Barker necessary after information from Anne Williams. Mr Ashley Rowe & Mrs Kathleen Rowe were proprietors - they were also known as Mr & Mrs Aldon Roen, and Aldon Studios was theirs.)
Maps are unusual in the stock of jigsaw libraries. This jigsaw lists the second address of the club, 27 Princes Street, Hanover Square, London W1 and the married couple Rowe (Ashley & Mrs Kathleen) as its proprietors. There is no stock number on the label. When sold in April 2017 it had 3pcmiss and 6 dated replacement pieces - from 1922 - 1927 (one illegible). The brown cardboard box has staples, running out from the side edges of the box lid (image not shown).
Original Jig-Saw Puzzle Club 805pc Map of Europe, 6repl, 33x23in. Complex pieces, oval knobs often with long necks.
Extract from Nicki's BCD Reserarch document:
Original Jigsaw Puzzle Club (London)
Founded 1909 –1930’s
Run by Mrs Aldon Roen, (Kathleen Rowe) 110 St Martin’s Lane, London - also 27 Princes Street, Hanover Square, London W1
Box: Early boxes are small 4” x 6” heavy duty brown card with printed sticker on top showing club and puzzle details and sticker on the bottom with handwritten list of borrowers, initialled K.R. and ?C.A.R., likely to be Kathleen Rowe. Later boxes are red.
Cut: Difficult. Early ones are push-fit solid mahogany with puzzle number stamped on some pieces. Later examples in red boxes are interlocking with many knobs per piece. High quality ply with number stamped on some pieces.
Examples:
- No B 67, 295 piece Black and White “Thursday”. 15.5” x 9.5”, push fit with some line-cutting (CLC). Solid wood
- “This is Alright”, interlocking. Very difficult.
- No B810, Marine Parade, Brighton 15” x 11” loopy cut, semi-interlocking and push-fit. Ply.
Comments: This was clearly a popular puzzle club with the example “Thursday” being lent out monthly at a cost of 2d.
Direct relationship with the club of the same name founded a year earlier in Cornwall. Both clubs are clearly very early examples of puzzle clubs in the UK.
The initials KA against borrowers could be that of Kathleen Rowe (see Cornwall Club).
There is an early jigsaw brand called Aldon, and the name of the proprietor of this Club hints that there might be a link between them - now confirmed.
Anne Williams found information about Aldon Studios from Games and Toys, a Feb 1917 Trade Magazine. It gave the address as 263 Regent St W, and described them as specialists in jigsaw puzzles, 'unique little figures cut in 3ply wood', makers of 'Eve' figures and 6d calendars.
An undated London Directory: "First Aldon Studios & Jig Saw Puzzle Club (Ashley & Kathleen Rowe, 24 Great Russell St WC )."