A good turnout of around 30 members enjoyed a lovely bright hall and a steady supply of tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits to accompany an interesting day’s puzzling and enjoy “The Poppy (1918) and Wild Flowers” themed Show and Tell session. As our chairman pointed out in his account of the meeting, it was also good to see quite a few BCD founder members among the attendees, just a few short miles from where The BCD was launched.
David kicked off the Show and Tell session with one miniature and one larger wooden puzzle, of the same image “Never Forget 1914-18”, cut by Dave Evans, ex-Victory cutter and cutter of the Guinness World Record largest wooden jigsaw – a 40,000 piece puzzle created for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. He followed this with a small wooden puzzle made by A.H.Dunn of Scotland featuring WW1 leaders Kitchener, French and Jellico and a third one, a puzzle club jigsaw first done by HR The Queen, cut by Czech cutter, Hela, celebrating the RAF, originally formed in 1918.
Jackie’s contributions included a push fit puzzle of bluebells in a birch wood near a lake, cut in plywood in the 1930’s and a 500 piece Wentworth puzzle “First World War Centenary” featuring a collection of WW1 posters against a backdrop of a poppy and daisy meadow. Helen, our host for the day, shared two puzzles, Wentworth’s “Tower of London Remembrance” showing the stream of ceramic poppies pouring out of the tower, and a second of Spring Flowers and Poole Pottery. She had also brought along three WW1 artifacts including, most memorably, a rather surprisingly medieval looking leather and chain mail mask that her father-in-law was given to wear to protect his face from the pieces of metal that flew off the inside his tank when it was hit.
Margaret showed a cardboard Flower Fairies jigsaw and a parish-owned JR cardboard puzzle “Hedgerow Flowers”. Peter brought along another flower puzzle, a wooden, beautifully cut by Swiss company Penelope who employed disabled people among their cutters. Tom started with a Chad Valley “The Bluebell Valley” and followed it with a Meredith Worsfold calendar puzzle. John shared a doubly appropriately themed, lovely large wooden puzzle, “Friends”. It showed a beautiful young lady walking her dog and holding a garland of wild flowers with more wild flowers in the foreground. He surmised that this image was based on “Diana of the Uplands”, the famous painting by Charles Wellington Furse. The woman who modeled for this latter painting started the 1st women’s nursing brigade to go out to Flanders in WW1. Sally started with Briony’s Victory flower puzzle and then talked about Lord Roberts workshops for disabled soldiers, expanded and named after him following his death while visiting troops in France, in 1914. In 1922 the newly formed British Legion linked up with the workshops who, as well as a variety of other goods, made lots of puzzles and wooden toys thereafter. She had brought along three examples of the puzzles they made in the 1920s and 30s.
Pete finished the session with two wooden puzzles from 1918. The first a small homemade puzzle cut from the side of a Fannings packing case titled ”Peace”, showing the celebrations as the soldiers returned home. The second a beautifully cut push fit “Belgians Returning”, from a painting by American artist Frank Schoonover, who travelled to Europe in 1918/19 to illustrate American forces in the war, showing Belgian civilians returning home with all their possessions under the watchful eyes of both American and local troops. Unfortunately, Martin had, during the day, completed two Bystander Bruce Bairnsfather WW1 “Old Bill” puzzles titled “The Thirst for Reprisals” and “The Professional Instinct Again”, cut for Frederick Warne by The Graphic Gallery, but didn’t get the call to share them! Thanks to Helen for another memorable meeting and to all those members who kindly contributed cakes and biscuits.