The BCD

20 page issue 129 featured a full colour front page of Chad Valley’s “Yachting”, brought along to the June meeting by one of the members for the Natural Beauty Show and Tell. The magazine’s colour pages contained many more images of the wide variety of puzzles on show at the meeting along with others illustrating some of the other interesting articles it also contained.

Martin and Frances Harper contributed two articles – one on the three different puzzles they have acquired over the years of the same “Vanity Fair” picture painted by prominent Scottish painter John Young Hunter and the other on Holtzapffel’s Figure=It=Out puzzle, “Spanish Girl” that they found in a chocolate box among their puzzles-still-to-do box!

Alan Sudbury also wrote two articles – a follow-up piece on puzzle and box restoration and another on his growing AVN Jones South African Series collection. Jackie Armstrong topped this with three articles including her earliest jigsaw memories and another piece on Expert cut puzzles, asking readers for more information on puzzles with this type of cut.

Finally Geert Bekkering’s article on three prominent puzzle cutters of Basel provided interesting detail and some great photos of some wonderful puzzles coming out of Basel in the first three-quarters of the last century.

This first meeting to be held at Bourton-on-the-Water, hosted by Emma Jenkinson was a great success.  Almost 40 members gathered in a spacious hall in the picturesque village location on a fine day, to enjoy both wooden and cardboard jigsaw puzzling, plenty of tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes and a Show and Tell session themed “Natural Beauty”.  And members both old and new – BCD founder member Mollie Barnes attended, as did Sara White collector and new member Francis, all the way from Plymouth in Devon.

As always, the Show and Tell included nicely varied interpretations of the theme! David  brought two cardboard puzzles – a Forestry Commission “Beech and Sycamore” and a Photocrom “”Lower Falls at Glen Nevis” – and a Chapman & Wise 1930’s studded-framed wooden puzzle “Sweet Rocket”. Sally followed with three puzzles including “Windsor Castle” a wooden puzzle made by Ex British Servicemen. Bronwen’s puzzles were a beautiful, intricately “American Scroll” style cut, oriental scene by Five Frogs and Peter Stocken’s “The Bare Essentials” which left little to the imagination!

Pete showed a pretty 700 piece Vera miniature “Les Vielles Marches” (Old Steps) “Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May” cut by Genest Desfosses (Le Colimacon) and an oval “Queen of Sheba” by an unknown cutter, suggested to be Salmon, but our resident Salmon expert not so sure!

Next was Francis who, as a neighbour of the family, had acquired a strong interest in Sara White’s puzzles and showed us a really impressive 1170 piece puzzle of hers, “The Adoration of The Magi”. Jackie followed with a Wentworth 500 piece tessellated “quilt” of several of her own tree and leaves photos, titled “New England Fall”. Her second was a combination of 6 individual monthly Meredith Worsfold puzzles and she finished up with a 3000 piece cardboard Educa puzzle, “James Bond’s Island” – a beautiful photo taken in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand.

Gillian presented a 1000 Waddington puzzle of boats (including her husband’s!) on the Thames at Abingdon and a much older wooden “Temperance of Industry” puzzle, Les showed a Chad Valley “Three Little Pigs”, Lynne brought along three Dave Evans cuts, “A Coastal Walk”,”Cornwall” and “Devon” and Alan another Chad Valley, “Yachting” and a Tuck “Edge of The Common”.  John closed the session with “Dona, Isabel de Porcel” a lovely puzzle of what he considered to be the star painting , by Goya, in the Prado in Madrid.

Following on from the March AGM/Spring meeting, the May issue of the BCD magazine contained quite a lot of content focused on the subject of jigsaw puzzle boxes.

As well as the usual write-ups of the meeting in general and the Show and Tell in more detail, accompanied by a page and half of colour pictures of boxes, the issue included three further articles from Alan Sudbury on boxes and their conservation, Michael Foster on box repair suggestions and editor Brian Sulman on unusual Salmon boxes. The first and last of these were also each accompanied by several colour photographs.

On other topics, Geert Bekkering contributed an article of his that i think first appeared in Der Spiegel providing an overview of the state of the jigsaw puzzle market predominantly in Germany but with references to the UK too. Rosemary Scofield’s article was on Lady Charlotte Finch, governess to George III’s children whose educational programme for them included geographical jigsaw maps. A mid-18th century puzzle of Canada and North America that she designed and used was on display as part of a recent Kensington Palace exhibition. Both Tom Tyler and Jackie Armstrong contributed pieces in response to Nicki Barker’s previous article on the history of colour line cutting.   David Shearer added to the  “Puzzling Ladies” series of articles, sharing more information on cutter Lady Beatrix Wilkinson.

There were many more articles of varying lengths to enjoy too. Ill just mention one more here … Emma Jenkinson’s plea for more cardboard puzzles to be brought along to BCD meetings!

Despite the wintry snow almost 30 people, including a couple all the way from Boston, MA, managed to find their way to the Spring/AGM meeting at Hemel Hempstead where they enjoyed the day in a warm, pleasant hall with good lighting. As well as the AGM, the day comprised the usual challenging puzzling, sales tables and a Show and Tell on the theme of Boxes!

Members brought a nicely varied and international selection of boxes to share. These included UK examples from Chandos, Chad Valley, Waddingtons, AVN Jones, Salmon, James Peters, Wallace, Zig-Zag, Tuck, Ann Austin and BB Dickenson and from outside the UK, French puzzle makers Michelle Wilson, Vera and Le Colimacon, Lox-Sur, Black Bear, and Turtle Teasers from the USA and Hakone from Japan.

Among these, puzzles and boxes of note were the following: David’s Lox-Sur Bridge Party Puzzle providing, i think, for the dummy of each hand to do a puzzle while the other three players played out the bridge hand; Barbara’s Waddington’s milk carton look alike box; Jackie’s cedar wood casket from Black Bear; David’s 21-steps-needed-to-open-it Hakone box; John’s Zig-Zag upright puzzle of Lord Kitchener and his AVN Jones “London to Alexandra” puzzle painted by famous Biggles author Capt W E Johns; and finally, Jan’s pristine Tuck’s Zag-Zaw box.

Thanks go to hostess Barbara Middlestorb for a great day enjoyed by all.

Once again, the Spring BCD magazine issue provided a thorough overview of the recent quarterly meeting (see previous post) as well as a nice variety of other interesting articles.  

Nicki Barker asked the question “Colour-Line Cutting – When did it really take off?” and included pictures of a wonderfully line-cut 1870 puzzle of the Packet boat from Folkestone arriving at Boulogne.

Tom Tyler’s brief article discussed an unusual Chad Valley “Mauretania on the stocks” – unusual in that it’s the only Cunard Chad Valley puzzle that shows a liner being built and that the box did not have any guide picture on it. Jackie Armstrong contributed a comprehensive article “The Orient Theme (Middle & Far East)” that provided details of all the puzzles she had taken to the Winter meeting (see previous post),  more details of some of the puzzles other members showed and an overview of the photo book she put together specifically for the meeting including many more orientally themed puzzles she owns. 

David Shearer provided Part 8 of the wanderings of his Jigasaurus website, this time focusing on his investigative work on a seemingly diverse collection of puzzles based on their advertised identities but perhaps all linked by the cutting and puzzle design of Robert Plumb, “Jig-Saw Puzzle Expert To The Graphic Gallery, The Strand, London”.
Several members  contributed to the Member’s views section and editor, Brian  included a list of spare back issues of the magazine ranging from numbers 83 to 126, with overviews of their contents, available at discount prices from him, with all proceeds to go to The BCD.

Over 30 members turned out on a cold bright day in November for the Winter meeting, joining friends, old and new, for a great day’s puzzling in Ullesthorpe Village Hall, near Lutterworth in Leicestershire. The meeting was hosted by Michael Foster, an expert on all matters railway, but had a twofold theme – ‘The Orient’ and ‘Steam Trains’. The former yielded more puzzles than the latter and together they provided ample opportunity for some great puzzling and an interesting and varied show and tell session.

Sadly John, who was scheduled to share some of his no doubt stunning oriental puzzles,  was unable to make the meeting but there were plenty of other members prepared to participate in the usual  show and tell session. Magazine editor Brian kicked off  with a varied selection of Salmon train puzzles that included a 1929 “Special Value” puzzle, “King Arthur” cut in the outline of the engine, and finishing up with “Speed” showing a steam train, aeroplane and racing car. Barrie showed with examples of Peacock puzzles, both oriental and train-related and was followed by Jill with a circular Waddington’s “A Court Reception” and Julia who included a Wentworth “Drum Bridge near Meguro”.  Jackie had prepared quite a detailed account of her collection of oriental puzzles that included examples from Victory, URCJ, Geert Bekkering (a clever invertible puzzle of a happy or sad oriental gentlemen), Heather Prydderch,  Elms , Liberty and Wentworth. Bronwen showed three puzzles including “In The Seraglio” made by disabled soldiers and sailors, and a Jeux Artistiques puzzle “Persian Miniature”.  David then returned to the train theme with  three from Ponda, Seaboard and AVN Jones’ “The Flying Scotsman” and finished with a Japanese Holtzapffel.  Sally included a Rupert Bear “Mandarin’s Tea Party” and Lynn two by the Church Missionary Society and one cut by a Howard Smeeton.
Chairman David showed Christine’s fabulous Mrs Appleby puzzle “Going Abroad” and then Phil with the biggest puzzle of the day, an 800 piece Chad Valley titled “The Canadian Pacific Train”, followed by another collectable Chad Valley from Alan, the GWR series ” Locos in the Making”. Finally Martin shared just a picture of a lovely Holtzapffel puzzle, “Stephenson’s Rocket”, that he didnt realise he owned until he recently opened a box in his store room and found it lying there!

Thanks to Michael for organising the day, to Sally for organising the teas and coffees and all who provided further sustenance throughout the day.

As well as the usual articles summarising the previous quarterly meeting and detailing the show and tell session that always form an integral part of our meetings, Issue 126 contained several pages of interesting articles including Part 7 of chairman David’s series on the wanderings of the Jigasaurus , two articles on the increasingly popular and active Flickr jigsaw groups (see also Related Events and Links section for more on both these) and two others on recent jigsaw festivals.

David’s article focused on an update on his progress on the huge collection of around 80 puzzles that he acquired some time ago and is slowly piecing together … the challenge of completing each individual puzzle being magnified by the jumbling up of some of the pieces from many of them! He illustrated his account with several pictures of recently completed puzzles including three of Holtzapffel’s glorious “Figure=It=Out” series, “The Indian Dancer”, “The Snake Charmer” and “King Robert of Sicily”.

Jackie’s article covered several of the Flickr groups she is involved with: “Jigsaws”- mainly, but not entirely, modern cardboard puzzles, “Leonisha’s Choice” – a gallery of 18 favourites from “Jigsaws” top contributor, “BIG Jigsaw Puzzle Collection” and  “Artistic Puzzles”- both self explanatory.

More and more communities, seemingly mostly church-based, are putting on jigsaw festivals, which both raise much needed funds but also serve to bring people together and establish long-lasting friendships. Two recent ones described in this issue were held in August at Alton and East Cowes on the Isle of Wight.  Local BCD members put on an interesting wooden jigsaw puzzle display in Alton and BCD flyers were included with each puzzle sold, in an effort to promote our membership.  If you’re interested in attending either of these events next year, the dates for your diary are: Alton, August 27th-Sep 1st and Isle of Wight, August 13th -18th.  

Other articles in the magazine covered Tricia’s Grand Canyon Challenge, an  interesting puzzle box find from 1919,  Chad Valley’s patriotic promotional puzzles and a detailed account of a member’s well curated Tower, Philmar and other 400+ piece puzzle collection.

The Summer edition of the magazine covered an interesting variety of puzzling-related topics ranging from the recent sale of an original Spilsbury puzzle to an offer of a large, if just a little incomplete, Victory Gold box puzzle free to a good home!

Anne Williams reported that John Spilsbury’s 1767, “Asia in its Principal Divisions”, hand-coloured engraved map pasted on to wood and dissected along country borders into just under 40 pieces, sold at auction in Winchester in July for almost £2,500! Ann also wrote a piece on the recent donation of 1500 games and jigsaws to the Bodleian Library in Oxford by collector Richard Ballam and went on to explain the significance of the Bodleian’s position as one of the world’s major centres for the study of games, puzzles and other aspects of childhood play and learning.

Jackie Armstrong contributed two articles: the first on “Show & Tell Items – Made Up or In Boxes?” and a second longer piece on the increasingly popular “Traditional Wooden Jigsaws” Flickr group that she started in 2012. In the article she also included links to pictures of each of of her favourite 30 puzzles from the site. Brian Sulman discussed more of his extensive Salmon puzzle collection, this time covering those featuring Meccano advertisements on the box lids.

Two guest written articles were also included. The first from Jill Davis described the first Kedington Jigsaw Festival that she and a willing team of helpers successfully put on in May and the second, from Ruth Atkin, told all about “Just Jigsaws”, a community group who meet weekly in Wimborne library to do puzzles together as well as enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake!

Rounding off the edition was John Hyde’s offer of a 1700 piece puzzle of the famous “Gloriana Reviews Her Fleet” painting, sadly missing 8 pieces but too good to throw away!

The summer meeting was held in the lovely seaside town of Clevedon on the Bristol Channel. The sun shone, the puzzles were varied and plentiful and a good time was had by all.

The theme for the meeting was “Maps”  and in the words of our chairman  “it brought out from the membership one of the finest displays I  can recall seeing for several years”.  Included in the Show & Tell session after  lunch were a cardboard reproduction of John Spilsbury’s very first puzzle of Europe dissected ,  a 1760 road map of England and Wales produced by Thomas Jefferys and 19th Century puzzles cut by two of the most prominent producers of the time, William Darton and John Wallis. The former, dating from around 1850, featured many of the routes travelled by a variety of sea-faring explorers including “Captain Cook, going south in search of a Continent 1773”;  the latter published in 1812, highlighting the “Southern Icy Ocean”!

More recent puzzles discussed included  a  1920’s map of the 32 counties of Ireland, each cut into one or more separate pieces, a 500 piece Chad Valley 1953 official souvenir puzzle of the Queen’s coronation route and a Waddington’s 1966 World Cup map.

The day was enhanced by by hosts Gillian and John Kernon’s family who looked after us in the kitchen all day and some of us were also lucky enough to enjoy further Kernon hospitality with a Sunday morning visit to their house to see their extensive puzzle and toy collection over coffee and biscuits. Thanks so much to all the Kernon family.