Earliest Use of Special Techniques for Making Adult Jigsaw Puzzles

Perhaps the most widely (and earliest) used special technique for cutting jigsaw puzzles and #1 on my list is color line cutting. This technique of cutting along color separations within a puzzle was employed by John Spilsbury, London, England in the very first puzzles made by him in the 1760s when he cut along the national borders in his map puzzles for children[6]. Not surprisingly, when Charles Jefferys, Philadelphia, PA started cutting some of the very first adult puzzles in America in the late 1890s, he employed color line cutting (Example 1). Following Jefferys puzzle makers in what is called the 1909 era used color line cutting extensively, more so than in any subsequent puzzle era [7].

Another basic technique, which I refer to as figure pieces but also known as figurals, silhouettes, whimsies, key or character pieces, was first employed early in the 20^th century for adult puzzles and has undergone several refinements leading to nine variations seen today[8] (#2a-2i). Figure pieces are specially cut pieces of the puzzle (usually using a pattern), which resemble recognizable objects such as animals, people, geometric figures, letters, numbers, household items, etc. Parker Brothers, Salem, MA made extensive use of a simple form of normal figure pieces in its early Pastime puzzles starting in 1910[9] (Example 2a). Parker Brothers (Pastime line) also made first use in America[10] of figure pieces-enhanced where “dead end” cuts are made into the figure to add detail (Example 2b). By the 1920s, Harriet Eagleson, Watertown & Arlington, MA and someone known only as “Damon” were cutting individual figure pieces into several puzzle pieces thereby creating figure pieces-complex[11] (Example 2c). Par Company, New York, NY began cutting the intended owner’s initials, personal dates and favorite items into its puzzles in the 1930s resulting in figure pieces-personalized [12] (Example 2d). This special technique is widely used in puzzles cut today[13]. For a more generalized form of personalization, in the 1930s Tuck (Zag-Zaw line) started cutting into some of its puzzles messages such as “Happy Birthday” or “Dear Mother,” called figure pieces-messages (Example 2e). Only a few cutters of the 1909 era consistently cut into their puzzles the same figure piece to identify themselves as the maker, starting with the letters J and L (Jig-Leo) of Lee Olney, Bath, Me and Pinehurst, NC (Example 2f) and later with the swastika of Helen Haskell Noyes, New York, NY[14]. This technique, called figure pieces-signature, is quite common today allowing accurate identification of a puzzle’s maker even if the box is lost. By the 1920s Parker Brothers (Pastime line) began to select and locate figure pieces within a puzzle appropriate to the scene, which I call figure pieces-appropriate (Example 2g). While Parker Brothers, Tuck and Par led the way in developing several techniques of cutting figure pieces, the Jones family, Chagrin Falls and Cleveland, OH cut some of the most extraordinary puzzles in the 1930s literally filled with exquisite figure pieces[15], many of them placed so as to appear to be interacting with each other and called figure pieces-interactive (Example 2h). The last of the nine special techniques for figure pieces is also the last to be developed: figure pieces-rebus, first employed by Stave Puzzles in the 1980s (Example 2i) and seldom appearing in other maker’s puzzles. A rebus is a series of carefully selected and cut figure pieces which, if properly “read” together, will form a word, phrase or expression.

While irregular edges involve cutting away parts of the outside of a puzzle, the basic technique of dropouts refers to cutting and leaving out areas within the puzzle borders (#4a-4e) . This can be done: to accentuate the central image thereby enhancing the scene, resulting in dropouts-enhancement which Par Company, New York NY and an obscure maker known only as Adreko did in the 1930s (Example 4a); to deceive the assembler with many small missing areas forming dropouts-deception which Stave Puzzles, Norwich, VT first started doing in the 1990s[16] (Example 4b); to create figures from the remaining pieces adjacent to the dropout areas, called dropouts-figures which Par Company, New York, NY first employed in the 1930s[17] (Example 4c); to create open areas within the puzzle which by themselves look like recognizable objects, called dropouts-sculpting, which Par Company also started doing in the 1930s (Example 2d)[18]; or to create multiple unattached figures which can be rearranged many ways but will “fit in” the puzzle in only one arrangement, called dropouts-challenge which Stave Puzzles developed only recently in the 1990s (Example 4e). Dropouts-enhancement is common today, but dropouts-deception, figures, sculpting and challenge require much planning and careful execution and are employed by only the best makers.

Minor changes in the maker’s cutting practices can produce four related techniques which will increase the level of a puzzle’s difficulty (#5a-5d). Disguised edges, i.e. pieces which do not resemble edge pieces but are needed to assemble the edge, were employed in non-interlocking puzzles (push-fit) in 1909c. by Kiltime Puzzles (address unknown), and in interlocking puzzles in the 1920s by The Original Thread & Needle Shop, Boston, MA (Example 5a) [19]. This technique is designed to confuse the assembler who habitually separates all the “edge pieces” and assembles them first before tackling the rest of the puzzle. Closely related are inside edges, corners, i.e. pieces, which look like edges and corners but assemble within the puzzle itself. Again, Charles Jefferys, Philadelphia, PA was using this technique in his early adult puzzles of the late 1800s (Example 5b). Kiltime Puzzles and Original Thread & Needle Shop were also making split corners in 1909c. and the 1920s respectively, by cutting through the actual corners of their puzzle (Example 5c)[20]. The fourth technique in this group, split knobs, occurs when the maker cuts pieces with large knobs and then cuts right through the knob itself making two pieces, thereby confusing the assembler who is looking for one piece with a full knob. European puzzles of the late 19^th century feature this technique, probably the result of the cutting pattern employed at that time[21]. Bert Rowe (address unknown) cut a wonderful example in the 1930s (Example 5d). Combining several of these techniques in one puzzle will raise the level of difficulty and make a puzzle very challenging to assemble, especially if started from the edge.

While traditional jigsaw puzzles are two-dimensional, I have identified three special techniques for adding a layered look to a puzzle, sometimes referred to as “three-dimensional” (#6a-6c). Multiple level puzzles involve adding (or subtracting) a layer of plywood (or ply). Most commonly, two pictures are used and cut into puzzles separately with the picture for the top level cut smaller than the bottom level (usually by discarding background). The smaller puzzle is then placed exactly over the same portion of the image in the larger puzzle and selected “key” pieces glued together between the two puzzles, thereby anchoring the top puzzle onto the bottom puzzle. I call this multiple levels-same picture, a technique first employed by Joseph Straus, Brooklyn, NY in its Sculptured series in the 1930s using two copies of the same picture[22] (Example 6a). If different scenes are used, the top picture must be carefully selected, cut and anchored onto the bottom picture so as to “fit in” to the overall scene, called multiple levels-different pictures, a technique Stave Puzzles developed in the 1980s (Example 4b)[23]. A variation employed by Straus in the 1930s used only one scene but raised the central image by gluing onto the central image’s bottom only, plywood carefully matching the outline of the central image, i.e. multiple levels-same wood. As a result of my efforts to encourage puzzle cutting in Pushkin, Russia in the early 1990s[24], Michail Drugov not only raised the central image this way but also shaved off two layers of ply from the backs of figure pieces cut in the puzzle, thereby creating an ingenious three-level puzzle from one picture with no overlapping sections (Example 6c).

Double cutting is a complicated technique whereby two (or more) pieces or sections of a puzzle are cut on top of each other, thereby creating interchangeable pieces, at least along the double cut lines. When entire puzzles are cut this way to reduce cutting time and then marketed separately, the technique is called “stack cutting”. Four variations of this basic concept have been developed (#7a-7d). As early as 1909c. George Fiss, Philadelphia, PA double cut sections of a puzzle so that a dozen or so pieces from one area were interchangeable with a dozen or so pieces from another area (usually along the edges), a technique I call double cutting-sections (Example 7a). In the 1920s, the little known “Maids of Kent”, Helen Helmore and Vera Tassell, Kent, England partially double cut pieces so that misplacing just one would deceive the assembler and make the puzzle impossible to assemble in any form, called double cutting-deception (Example 7b). In the 1980s Stave Puzzles, Norwich, VT developed an ingenious variation of Fiss’ technique by double cutting face-to-face sections from two puzzles with the same or related pictures and then exchanging the sections between them in “appropriate” areas, called double cutting-reversing pieces (Example 7c). Thus, the backs of the switched sections form part of the front of the other puzzle. Stave Puzzles also developed in 1990 the first double cutting-challenge with their famous Champ puzzle, which can be assembled completely in multiple ways but only correctly if the dragon is “biting its tail” (Example 7d). Stave Puzzles has made extensive use of this technique under the name “two-way trick” and created “second” and “third generation” puzzles which challenge the very best jigsaw puzzlers in the world, called “gunslingers” by Steve Richardson, the owner and originator of this and other Stave special techniques in their ceaseless battle of wits!

Loose cut puzzles, the result of the use of thicker blades during cutting, normally are not considered well cut puzzles by most American collectors and enthusiasts[25]. Yet, Stave Puzzles, Norwich, VT has developed a highly refined version of this concept and created its own trademarked Crazy Claws and Monkey Fist. As I understand it, a very experienced cutter will cut a slightly larger round hole into which several other round knobs will loosely fit. The loose fit may allow the adjacent piece to shift as in Crazy Claws or pieces from other parts of the puzzle to fit into the hole as in Monkey Fist (Example 8). When integrated into specially designed artwork, the effect “tricks” the assembler into following many false paths, similar to double cutting. I call this technique loose cut-challenge (#8).

Cutting a puzzle so that all the pieces (except the edge pieces) look nearly identical, called all pieces same shape (#9), actually dates back to 19^th century sliced puzzles for children and some of the earliest puzzles cut 1909c. for adults where the maker has employed the straight line or crooked line style of cutting. However, in my opinion, these puzzles were cut as simply and cheaply as possible with similar shaped pieces the unintended result. I prefer to list the Perx Puzzles, address unknown, of the 1930s where the maker carefully planned and cut an intricate interlocking pattern of similar shaped pieces as the earliest use of all pieces same shape (Example 9). Where the cutting blades of the die are shaped the same, cardboard puzzles achieve a similar effect in the round knob strip cut puzzles, which so many collectors disdain today but are certainly more difficult to assemble.

Collage puzzles (#10) cover a broad range of puzzles where the picture itself has been altered in some manner by the puzzle maker. There are so many ways of doing this that I have not tried to identify each as an individual special technique. They include: attaching stickers to the picture before cutting (Andover Novelty Shop, Andover, MA 1930s Nu-Friend puzzles-Example 10a); cutting the plywood larger than the picture and painting and cutting the bare wood attached to or separate from the puzzle (Clyde Richburg, North Andover, MA, 1930s Novelty puzzles-Example 10b); combining sections of several pictures to create a composite scene[26]; touching up the picture with paint or colored pencils; revising or shortening the picture by double cutting sections and relocating key elements in the scene and discarding areas in between (my own The Magic of Mozart 1991 puzzle-Example 10c[27]). Collage techniques allow a maker to change to some extent the existing scene. This is important because, historically, nearly all puzzle makers have worked with existing artwork and “cut the puzzle to the picture”. A few makers have produced their own original art or hired someone else to produce it but generally have still “cut the puzzle to the picture”. In 1977 Stave Puzzles, Norwich, VT began reversing this process by designing the puzzle first and then commissioning an artist to draw the picture in accordance with the puzzle designer’s specifications. Multiple copies of the artwork are then made and cutters trained to cut puzzles individually from the artwork in accordance with the original design specifications. While expensive, this approach (not really a “special cutting technique”) opens the way for imaginative use of new techniques as well as further refinement of existing ones.

Two-sided puzzles (#11), where the maker glues pictures on both sides of the wood and switches the top side during cutting (to prevent the assembler from using the slight burr of the kerf bottom to sort the pieces), go back as far as the 1909 era and J. I. Austen Co., Chicago, IL. Usually, two different pictures are used, but in the 1970s Anne Williams, then living in Philadelphia, PA, used two copies of the same picture, certainly an ingenious way to further deceive the assembler (Example 11).

The last group of techniques for discussion are puzzles which truly have a three dimensional quality (#12a-12c). They include: 3-D pop up where special pieces are made and “stood up” by fitting into pre-cut slots in the puzzle (Stave Puzzles, Norwich, VT 1970s-Example 12a); 3-D constructional where the assembler actually builds a replica or model in three dimensions by fitting jigsaw-like pieces together (Kawin Mfg. Co, Astoria, NY/Skyline 3-D, 1930s-Example 12b), and 3-D puzzle to game where after assembly pieces of the puzzle can be removed and turned into a game such as “ring toss” (Harper Novelty Co, England/Toyzenet, WW I-Example 12c). The 3-D constructional puzzle is popular today in the form of foam block pieces, which can be assembled into some of our most famous buildings and landmarks in the world. At this point, the jigsaw puzzle is becoming “mechanical” in nature and crossing into the broad field of mechanical or solid puzzles and its many variations[28].