The English Jigsaw Puzzle, 1760-1890: with a descriptive check-list of puzzles in the museums of Great Britain and the author's collection

London: Wayland. Very Good+ in Very Good dust wrapper. 1972. First British Edition. Hardcover. 164 pages. Illustrated with b&w and colour illustrations, very nice pictorial endpapers. Spine tail and corners bumped; no binding problems, pages clean and bright. Price clipped pictorial dust wrapper lightly edgeworn and creased. Tiny skinned area on front. A nice copy. ; <b>From the dust wrapper: 'Jigsaw puzzles are one of the most loved toys. They appeal equally to young and old because they demand only that amount of skill and patience each player is prepared to give. But they have become so much part of the social scene that, until now, no-one has questioned their origin. For some years Linda Hannas has been engaged on a great deal of original research to establish when jigsaws were first made, where, and by whom. Wills, parish records, census returns, rate books, street directories, have all been used. The results of this research are set down here and make fascinating reading. The reader will discover that jigsaws were invented more than two hundred years ago by a London engraver and that they were designed, not as a toy, but as a serious teaching aid. Their history is traced from the 1760's to the 1890's when color printing and greater mechanization began to destroy the charm and character of their first hundred years. The author traces the changing fashions in subjects, the evolving pattern of manufacture and distribution, and describes the reception given to dissections, as jigsaws were then called, by the educationalists of the day. References to them in literature are also quoted. <p>Linda Hannas has visited thirty-five museums throughout Great Britain in which she found some 330 pre-1890 puzzles. These, together with about 260 in her own collection are individually described, located and arranged under subject headings in this book. Jigsaw publishers, engravers, etc., are listed with their products. Thus the reader cannot only discover the origin and history of the jigsaw but can see at a glance the whereabouts of any particular puzzle. <p>With its fine illustrations and broadly based text, this is a book for the lover of antiquities as much as for the curator and librarian. It will remain the standard reference work for jigsaw puzzles for many years to come.'</b> .