Puzzle Mania!

Right now our family officially has puzzle fever. We've done one 750 piece puzzle in a day.  Were also working on a 1000 piece puzzle.  Well that brings me too a couple of interesting story's.  First, when I was little I would always ask my dad to cut my pieces of ham into shapes, and I would put them back together like a puzzle, and thats how I got into puzzles!  Next, how were puzzles invented?  Why?  hmmmm, well lets see.  Let's start with the Dutch, a very reasonable possibility. According to Betsy and Geert Bekkering, two of the oldest surviving puzzles made in the Netherlands were made from maps that were printed in the early part of the 18th century. It is generally believed that, being an educational device, "dissections" were made with current maps. 

As always, there are some exceptions to the rule. If the country's boundaries did not change, a older map would work just the same as a newly printed one. Paper and printing were both expensive so any existing stock would likely be used without regard to current borders. The Bekkerings note that the two dissected maps were not of professional quality and one includes a cutting style (interlocking) that was not seen elsewhere in England or on the continent until after 1770. Most likely, an amateur cut some maps from an out-of-date atlas in the late 18th or early 19th century.

I've come across a few different pages with some sort of official looking document that notes the invention of the jigsaw puzzle in France, circa 1830. Running it through an online language translator (French to English) does the usual hack job but seems sufficient to give me the gist of it. This document makes no mention at all of the existance of the puzzle manufacturers who were in business before then or of surviving puzzles that are dated prior to that. This includes 18th century French puzzles. There is a French connection (more about this later), but these particular claims have no merit.

The Germans were early manufacturers and exporters of puzzles but there is simply no evidence of them being first. There are no known 18th century dissections extant and no records (tax, occupational, etc) of early involvement. The above mentioned picture puzzle at the Lilly Library was designed by Johann Claudius Sarron and engraved by Martin Engelbrecht of Augsburg, Germany. The caption (in German and Latin) reads: Whoever has never seen a picture puzzle can use this sheet as a modest example. Note: in my collection, some of my earliest examples of puzzles made in America were produced by Jacob Shaffer and Thomas Wagner. Both worked in Philadelphia and produced puzzles starting around 1860. Their style was identical to those being produced in Germany so I guess that they were immigrants or first generation offspring who received German made puzzles from their parents. (maybe from a favorite Aunt!)

Original post:  http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_invented_the_jigsaw_puzzle

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