Thanks to Peter and Margaret Bell for hosting a successful September meeting in Alton, where the theme was “Birds”. Over 30 attendees enjoyed the opportunity to indulge in a day’s puzzling among like-minded friends, old and new. The day was enhanced for some by a classic car display not far away in town.
As always, the day produced a fine selection of puzzles from a variety of manufacturers with quite a preponderance of Wentworth puzzles being put together and more included in the Show & Tell session. Tom showed two of the fifteen he owns from their popular series based on Thorburn’s 1915 four volumes of British Birds, as well as a lovely Sara White “Garden birds”, and Alan showed another two more unusual Wentworths sold by The Scottish Seabird Centre. Lynne showed an Aunt Eva cut “Seashore with Gulls” as well as, for me the puzzle of the day, Holtzapffel’s “Chicken Licken” that graced the front cover of the subsequent issue of Jigsaw Pieces (See next post above).
Jackie brought along another fine Liberty puzzle, the 332 piece “Carolina Parakeets”, looking quite challenging featuring non-linear edges and many drop outs. John showed what he considered the most well know of Holtzapffel’s puzzles, “BlueBird” as well as another famous bird, “Jemima Puddleduck” produced by Frederick Warne.
Other puzzles enjoyed by the assembled audience came from Connoisseur, Delta, Vera, Salmon, Tuck, Waddington’s, a very old mid-Victorian Darton & Clark, three from the British Jigsaw Puzzle Library, two of these cut by Erics Bond and Pedley respectively and, finally, one cut by host Peter Bell himself! A good time was had by all.
See Gallery page for more photos of the puzzles shared at this meeting.