The BCD

The summer edition was larger than usual, and packed with interest, including articles about commissioning personal puzzles (Jackie), the Zig Zag puzzle company (Nicki), Terence Cuneo (Mollie) , laser cutters from Ukraine and hand cutters Adam Ferner and Peter Bollinger. These were in addition to the write-ups of the house party – a Show and Tell on the theme Urban Life, talks on the Catalan Atlas project (Maria), and puzzle contest sets (Debby).

Somehow, space was found for the world’s largest and smallest hand cut puzzles, Wout’s paean of praise for Venice, Emma’s paean of praise for the BCD, Alan’s tale of the ‘brown’ puzzle that took two years to complete, and a surprising fact about Wentworth Wooden Puzzles…

Our latest event, two short presentations, took place on Zoom, and attracted almost 40 members.

Wout has been researching how we can be sure that many of the wooden jigsaw puzzles sold in the 1910s and 20s by department stores such as Barker, Boardman, Gamage, Hamley Brothers, Selfridge and Shoolbred, were produced by a single firm, Peacock and Sons, although these early puzzles did not include the Peacock name or logo. He has examined over 80 puzzles,  looking at the cutting style, type of wood, and box labels. It was agreed that he had had made a convincing argument that a single manufacturer had produced them all.

Nicki talked to us about puzzle cutter Rob Garner, who cut some 1300 puzzles between 2000 and 2015 under the name Amber Puzzles.    These were mainly cut as commission pieces and included some 100 cut for the British Jigsaw Puzzle Library as well as hundreds for BCD members.  Nicki explained how, by interacting with puzzle lovers who commissioned puzzles from him, Rob developed his understanding of what puzzlers wanted from a puzzle, and honed his cutting skills to a very high level.

Jigsaw Pieces is under new management, but the quality and variety of the contents is unchanged! This issue focussed on the January virtual meeting, ‘Cardboard and more’, with pages of colourful examples of cardboard puzzles old and new, and a report of a talk by Mike on the different types and difficulty of cardboard cuts.

Bronwen described  the puzzle she would most like to own, and greedily chose one of the most expensive (and unavailable) puzzles in the world. The managing director of Wentworth Wooden Puzzles answered members’ questions, explaining among other things how the pandemic and Brexit had affected their production and sales. Nicki wrote about her decade-long project to catalogue all the puzzle libraries in Britain, requesting members’ help to fill gaps. Kerstin showed us some of her small collection of advertising puzzles (although, of course, she doesn’t collect such puzzles), Howard explained how he had got into puzzle cutting, and Margot chose one of her favourite feline puzzles as her ‘flickr find’. Member no. 20, one of our founder members, introduced himself and his puzzle collection.

Finally there was a review of last year’s virtual Puzzle Parley, and an invitation to join this year’s event in Massachussetts, in July 2022.

We are pleased to be able to promote The 2nd Wyverstone Jigsaw Festival

Despite the best efforts of the covid pandemic (which prevented our Chair and several international members, among others, from attending) and Storm Eunice, at its worst on the day most people arrived, this year’s house party was a great success.For some, this was the first large public event for two years, and the relief at being with friends again was palpable.

Every table was crammed with puzzles – puzzles on display for a Show and Tell on the theme of  ‘Urban Life’, puzzles for sale, and puzzles to complete with friends. The 3,000 piece puzzle wasn’t completed, but an ‘impossible’ vintage puzzle and other very challenging jigsaws were. In addition to groaning sales tables, there was an auction of 30 of Tom Tyler’s puzzles, which raised more than the pre-sale estimate.

There were also two excellent talks by international members. Maria gave a captivating talk about her Catalan Atlas project, by video link from Germany. She had commissioned six hand cutters from different countries to cut sections of the 14th century Atlas, and the results were breathtaking. Meanwhile, Deb travelled all the way from the USA to tell the history of puzzling competition sets, and to dragoon 16 participants into a speed competition, using Parker Pastime competition sets. She even awarded prizes.

Rob had flown in from Abu Dhabi to talk about his proposed app for cataloguing puzzle collections, and making them available to other puzzle enthusiasts.

The AGM was dispatched with the BCD’s usual ruthless efficiency, – Maria was welcomed onto the committee, and Bronwen became the new Editor. Two of our longest-serving committee members, David, our former Chair, and Brian, the editor of the magazine, were awarded Life Membership and especially commissioned puzzles. And, remembering all those who had not managed to get there, or who were no longer with us since the last house party, we all raised a glass to ‘Absent friends’.

Seven long months since the last virtual meeting, and some club members were posting photos on flickr well before the puzzling weekend began. There were far more cardboard puzzles than usual, because by popular demand, the theme of the Show and Tell was ‘Cardboard and more’.

Along with the vintage puzzles, there were puzzles by some of the best modern makers of cardboard puzzles. ‘And more’ produced some wooden and fibreboard puzzles, and more imaginatively, plastic, cork and even virtual reality puzzles.

15 members from across the UK, Europe and the US talked about their chosen cardboard puzzles. The next day, Mike gave an illustrated  talk about how the cut of cardboard puzzles could add to the challenge of completing them.

These virtual meetings, started because of lockdown restrictions in a pandemic, have now become a permanent feature of the club timetable, ensuring that members anywhere in the world can be involved in club activities.

The Lingfield meeting was recorded in this issue, including a nostalgic Show and Tell on the theme ‘Puzzles revisited during lockdown’.  They included a Wentworth patchwork coverlet, a Liberty London street map and (the best kind of old puzzle) a charming little puzzle housed in an old OXO tin.

In Brian’s final edition after 16 years as editor, Barbara’s article on 25 glorious years of the BCD was reprinted, and Brian looked back on some of the highlights of the 60 issues for which he was responsible.

Nicki had a question about an unusual Victory puzzle with excellent colour line cutting, and Maria waxed eloquent about a new (cheap!) Polish maker of wooden jigsaw puzzles, Wooden City.

And there was a tribute to longstanding BCD member Barrie, who  died recently. He was a member of the Peacock family which made beautiful wooden puzzles as well as other toys, and he had researched the firm in depth.

Announcing the 2022 Puzzle Parley, the sixteenth in-person parley since 1994!
After the long Covid-19 hiatus, the popular in-person Puzzle Parley will return the weekend of July 22-24, 2022 in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, just 65 miles west of Boston. Please save the date and plan to join us to share the latest in puzzle crafting, collecting, and history.

The puzzle-filled weekend will include some old favorites, such as the Pagey Elliott Puzzle Exchange (for puzzle crafters), the Cutters’ round-table discussion now including both scroll cut and laser cut puzzles, the Best in Show, Yankee Swap, and evenings assembling puzzles into the wee hours with new and old friends. There will be presentations by puzzle historians, collectors, and cutters as well as cutting workshops and opportunities to meet some of today’s most innovative modern puzzle crafters. New and antique puzzles will be on sale. There will even be a speed contest on Saturday evening sponsored and run by Artifact Puzzles to test your puzzle assembly skills.

Information about the 2022 Puzzle Parley is updated frequently at www.puzzleparley.org. There you will find everything you need to know about the weekend. The website includes the schedule of events, information about participating in the Pagey Elliott Puzzle Exchange, how to apply for a grant to help defray the cost of the weekend, how to register, and much more!

There were fewer attendees than usual, but of course, that meant more cake for everyone, and a chance of bargains at the sales tables. As host Rosie said, ‘It meant a lot to see familiar faces again and altogether it felt like a celebration of what our society is about.’

The theme for the ‘Show and Tell’ was ‘Favourite puzzles we have revisited during lockdown’. Several of these old favourites had had to have missing pieces replaced, including Pete’s poignant ‘Her cross’, where a young woman receives the medal of a sweetheart who will never return.

A close inspection failed to find any replaced pieces.

Alan has a useful rule of thumb for puzzles bought as job lots – they will each have 3 missing pieces!

Bernard brought a copy of the popular Chad Valley puzzle ‘Totnes’, a copy of which has been in his family since 1936. He and his mother competed against each other to complete their half of the puzzle – their record was 22 minutes.

The record for a favourite repaired puzzle was Rosie’s puzzle, ‘The Bouquet’ by artist C E Brock. It  had no fewer than 26 unpainted replacement pieces.  Her labour of love during covid lockdowns transformed the puzzle.

The eagerly awaited face-to-face meeting in Binsted was the main theme of Issue 142. The History ‘Show and Tell’ was given prominence, with colourful photos of everything from an ancient chariot race to a political protest in Wales in the 1960s.

Nicki produced the results of interesting research into the link between French Anglo-American and Pastime puzzles, and Bronwen asked for information about women puzzle cutters in Cheltenham.

Kerstin and Stefanie reported on their visit to look at old puzzles stored by the Basel Historical Museum. Will and Val, meanwhile, had ventured to Cowes in the Isle of Wight for the annual Jigsaw Festival, where the huge range of puzzles on offer made them overspend their budget. (Other puzzle lovers will sympathise.)

The magazine concluded with an account of the service of thanksgiving for our much-loved BCD President, Tom Tyler. Speakers included a former pupil at the school in the Solomon Islands where Tom was the headmaster. Afterwards, Tom’s favourite food was provided to guests – a hearty Devon Cream Tea.