Jigsaws exploded twice: after 1907 and again under lockdown
Around 1880 fretsaws gave dissected maps the jigsaw name; U.S. adults then caught a craze from 1907 to 1910. Stay-at-home orders during COVID-19 pushed demand up again on a scale likened to the Great Depression boom.
Early twentieth-century wooden sets were often non-interlocking and sold without box pictures, maximising difficulty. Postwar wage rises priced solid wood out while cardboard presses made cheap colour reproductions. Modern lines glue printed art to board, then hydraulic or roller dies stamp pieces—forces far beyond cookie cutters—with foam ejectors clearing the cut. 1930s hydraulic presses costing fortunes once limited production to big firms; newer roller methods democratised snug fits.
COVID lockdowns revived family tables the way Depression evenings once did.
John Spilsbury is believed to have made the first jigsaw around 1760 with a marquetry saw, mounting maps on hardwood and cutting along national borders to teach geography, and the royal governess Lady Charlotte Finch used such dissected maps with her pupils. The French educator Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont had already used wooden maps in her teaching. In the 18th century puzzles were pictures painted on flat wood and cut up, and the jigsaw name comes from the saws used to cut them.
Adult puzzles commonly run from 300 to 5,000 pieces, and a typical thousand-piece puzzle is laid out 38 by 27 for 1,026 pieces. Wooden puzzles fit more loosely and may include shaped pieces called whimsies. By the early 1960s Tower Press was the world's biggest maker, and Waddingtons bought it in 1969. The largest puzzle by area, 6,122.68 square metres with 12,320 pieces, was assembled in Dubai on 7 July 2018, while one with 551,232 pieces was completed in Ho Chi Minh City on 25 September 2011. Annual World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships began in 2019.
Source: Jigsaw puzzle
