John Spilsbury a London engraver, mapmaker and apprentice to the Royal Geographer, officially designed and invented what would be the first jigsaw puzzle around 1767, when he attached a map to a piece of wood and cut out each country. All manufactured jigsaw puzzles for the next two decades were dissected maps like Spilsbury's original creation.
These jigsaw puzzle maps were used as teaching aids for geography classes and when the students put the puzzle together, they learned and understood how the countries were arranged.
In two years Spilsbury created eight maps targeting Ireland and Scotland, Whales and England, Africa, America, Asia, Europe and the World.
As wood puzzles were cut one piece at a time they were expensive and a 500 piece puzzle's average cost was $5.00 in 1908, the average worker only earned $50.00 a month. The wealthy however embraced this past time and many sales were made on the weekend when they would purchase these puzzles for their parties.
Two significant changes occurred over the next few years as Parker Brothers, the game manufacturer added figure pieces(dogs,cats,birds,etc.) in their "Pastime" brand of puzzles which made puzzles easier to put together. The puzzle design was changed to interlocking pieces so there was less risk of the pieces getting lost or spilling. It was so successful that in 1909 Parker Brothers factory discontinued making their other games and concentrated solely on producing jigsaw puzzles.
With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 jigsaw puzzles popularity soared as puzzles became more affordable and family's could not afford to go outside the home for entertainment. As the popularity soared, the introduction of die-cut cardboard puzzles emerged. The mass production and inexpensive puzzles being made allowed the manufactures to cut the price. This form of entertainment took the place of going to the movies, or out to dinner.
In mid-1932 manufactures began giving away puzzles with the purchase of their product, these puzzles would represent the products being purchased and it proved to be a great advertising tool as well. The popularity peaked in 1933.
With the Depression two men, Frank Ware and John Henriques created "Par Puzzles". While the other manufactures were cutting cost and quality, these two men were creating custom jigsaw puzzles for affluent customers. They would create a jigsaw puzzle that had irregular edges as opposed to the "corner and edge pieces" and would give misleading titles and "par times" which were impossible for all but the quickest puzzlers to complete.
After World War II increasing wages made wood puzzles more expensive because they took so much time to cut, so the demand for wood jigsaw puzzles went down and the brands of wood puzzles that had become so popular started to diminish. However because the quality and die-cutting of the cardboard puzzles made these more affordable, the cardboard puzzles grew more popular.
In 1958 Parker Brothers stopped making the "Pastime" puzzles and in 1974 Frank Ware of "Par and Straus", another major manufacturer retired and the English "Victory" puzzles which were abundance in the 50's and 60's were depleted.
Steve Richardson and Dave Tibbetts founded "Stave Puzzles" and resurrected the wood puzzles with great designs. Original artwork was introduced and designed to work with the cutting patterns. 3D puzzles, personalized puzzles/service and trick puzzles which fit together in different solutions which were incorrect and only one solution that was correct were some of the puzzles manufactured by "Stave".
Stave's success led other manufactures to follow suit knowing that there was once again a market for the wood puzzles.
Today there is a large variety of jigsaw puzzles on the market, and to name just a few, there are traditional puzzles, wood puzzles, 3d puzzles, shaped puzzles, custom jigsaw puzzles.
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