Jigsaw Puzzles

John Spilsbury, a London mapmaker and engraver, is credited with commercialising jigsaw puzzles around 1760.

He created an aid to teach geography by mounting a map a wooden sheet the sawing around each country. The students responded well and this remained the main use of jigsaws until around 1820. After that other pictures were used and pieces cut into random shapes. 

International Puzzle Day is celebrated on January 29 each year.

It was created in 1995 by game companies in the United States to honour puzzles of all types, shapes and sizes; jigsaws are the most prolific types sold. Celebrate this day by solving a puzzle.

John Spilsbury would not believe what’s come from his 1760 invention.

From kids jigsaws with just a few pieces upto the largest commercial made jigsaw with over 40,000 pieces there’s a jigsaw for everyone. And there’s not many people who don’t enjoy doing a jigsaw.

1000 piece jigsaws seem to be a very popular size. Just enough of a challenge but not so hard that you’ll never finish it.
But did you know they don’t really have 1000 pieces? Usually it’s 1008. Usually with 36 pieces across the top and 28 down the sides. Mathematically 1000 is just not a number that can be divided up easily!
So next time you complete a 1000 piece jigsaw you can tell your friends you’ve probably actually done a 1008 piece jigsaw.

But some makers have delved into making jigsaws with very odd numbers. And some with extra puzzling to do too.
The most famous of them, Ravensburger, have made a 759 piece jigsaw puzzle. No edges. And an escape room mystery to solve at the end.  Mr Puzzle stocks this one just because of the additional puzzling elements it offers and it’s as hard as any 1000 piece puzzle with edges.

The Japanese puzzler Yuu Asaka created an award-winning jigsaw puzzle with just 29 pieces. What? Only 29? And it’s definitely not for kids.
Yu Asaka was awarded a Jury Honourable Mention in the 2018 International Puzzle Design Competition for his Jigsaw Puzzle 29 which stumped not only the judges but most people who pick it up.

An even harder puzzle and with even fewer pieces is the Framed Jigsaw by Hajime Katsumoto. We sell it here on our website. And with difficult level 7/10 it’s up there with some of our hardest puzzles.