Pieces

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‘The origins of jigsaw puzzles go back to the 1760s when European map makers pasted maps onto wood and cut them into small pieces. The “dissected map” has been a successful educational toy ever since.

‘Puzzles for adults emerged around 1900, and by 1908 a full-blown craze was in progress in the United States. Most had pieces cut exactly on the color lines. There were no transition pieces with two colors to signal, for example, that the brown area (roof) fit next to the blues (sky).

‘A sneeze or a careless move could undo an evening’s work because the pieces did not interlock. And, unlike children’s puzzles, the adult puzzles had no guide picture on the box; if the title was vague or misleading, the true subject could remain a mystery until the last pieces were fitted into place.

‘Because wood puzzles had to be cut one piece at a time, they were expensive. A 500-piece puzzle typically cost $5 in 1908, far beyond the means of the average worker who earned only $50 per month.

‘High society, however, embraced the new amusement. Peak sales came on Saturday mornings when customers selected puzzles for their weekend house parties in Newport and other country retreats.

‘The next few years brought two significant innovations. First, Parker Brothers, the famous game manufacturer, introduced figure pieces into its “Pastime” brand puzzles.

‘Figure pieces made puzzles a bit easier to assemble. But the fascination of pieces shaped like dogs, birds, and other recognizable objects more than offset the somewhat reduced challenge.

‘Second, Pastimes and other brands moved to an interlocking style that reduced the risk of spilling or losing pieces. Pastime puzzles were so successful that Parker Brothers stopped making games and devoted its entire factory to puzzle production in 1909.

‘Following this craze, puzzles continued as a regular adult diversion for the next two decades.

‘With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, puzzles for adults enjoyed a resurgence of popularity, peaking in early 1933 when sales reached an astounding 10 million per week.

‘With incomes depleted, home amusements like puzzles replaced outside entertainment like restaurants and night clubs. Puzzles became more affordable too.

‘Many of the unemployed architects, carpenters, and other skilled craftsmen began to cut jigsaw puzzles in home workshops and to sell or rent them locally.

‘During the 1930s craze for puzzles, drugstores and circulating libraries added puzzle rentals to their offerings. They charged three to ten cents per day, depending on size.

‘Another important development was the introduction of die-cut cardboard puzzles for adults. Mass production allowed the manufacturers to cut prices substantially.

‘There was a vogue for advertising puzzles in mid-1932. Retail stores offered free puzzles with the purchase of a toothbrush, a flashlight, or hundreds of other products.

‘The autumn of 1932 brought a novel concept, the weekly jigsaw puzzle. The die-cut “Jig of the Week” retailed for 25 cents and appeared on the news stands every Wednesday. People rushed to buy them and to be the first among their friends to solve that week’s puzzle.

‘The Depression led to the birth of Par Puzzles, long dubbed the “Rolls Royce of jigsaw puzzles.” Frank Ware and John Henriques, young men with no job prospects, cut their first puzzle at the dining room table in 1932.

‘Parr marketed them to affluent movie stars, industrialists and even royalty. They specialized in customized puzzles, often cutting the owner’s name or birth date as figure pieces. They also perfected the irregular edge to frustrate puzzlers who tried to start with the corners and edge pieces.

‘After World War II, the wood jigsaw puzzle went into a decline. At the same time improvements in lithography and die-cutting made the cardboard puzzles more attractive.

‘High quality reproductions of fine art were introduced on jigsaws. In 1965 hundreds of thousands of Americans struggled to assemble Jackson Pollock’s “Convergence,” billed as “the world’s most difficult jigsaw puzzle.”

‘One by one, the surviving brands of wood puzzles disappeared. Parker Brothers discontinued its Pastime puzzles in 1958. By 1974, Par had retired from the business. The English “Victory” puzzles, easily found in department stores in the 1950s and 1960s, almost completely vanished.

‘In the 1980s, Stave Puzzles succeeded Par as the leader in wood puzzles. Stave went several steps beyond Par, commissioning original artwork that was specially designed to interact with the cutting patterns.

Yoshitomo Nara

Francesco Clementi

Takashi Murakami

Jeremy Deller

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Gunther Forg

Fabian Delberghe

Andres Serrano

‘Experimentation with pop-up figure pieces led to three-dimensional puzzles and many trick puzzles that fit together in several different wrong ways, but with only one correct solution. — Anne D. Williams

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*

p.s. Hey. ** Poecilia, They’ll be so flattered and thrilled, trust me. Thank you again! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Post-Jam Weller has yet to find my sweet spot. ** Carsten, I think the Stones wanted to be very successful pretty quickly. As soon as they started writing their own songs basically. I think there might two or three good tracks post-‘Exile’ but that’s it. ‘Goats Head Soup’ is where they started just knowingly fulfilling the expectations of what they thought Rolling Stone fans expected, and they never experimented again. ** Dr. Kosten Koper, Hi, sir. That’s interesting. I hadn’t pegged you as a Power Pop guy. But then people don’t peg me as one either. I’ll watch/hear The Embarrassment, thank you. I don’t know them from Adam. ** DonW, Hi. I saw one of the earliest Redd Kross gigs when they were about 15 years old. They were adorable. And they’re still doing it, yeah. And one of them is a current member of the almighty Melvins. I want to see that Bill Bartell doc. It’s by Dave Markey, who’s a cool filmmaker. We tried Clinton Street Theater and Tomorrow Theater, but not those two you mentioned. I’ll look them up and see if I can a contact for the programmers. We need those contacts to start. Thanks, buddy. ** Thom, Thanks, happy to collude. How did the story and prose poem work go? The latter’s premise is most intriguing. Good week starting to you. ** Måns BT, Hi, Måns! I’ve been good, up to the usual. We haven’t talked about what to do in Stockholm yet. I’ll check to see what’s up. Any suggestions would be highly wonderful. I know, sucks about the timing re: Gronalund. Really sucks. Zac sent the materials to the Zita people yesterday. Maybe you were cc’ed on that. Don’t worry about the Q&A. It’ll be fun. We’re nice and easy. I don’t know how long. Hm, maybe you can feel it out at the time and see if folks are still into it or getting antsy? I think ‘The Weaklings (XL) is o.o.p, but I’m not sure. If you remind me close to the time when we’re coming, I can bring you a copy. Thanks, pal. Excited! ** Steve, No, the haunt project is on the back burner until we get the new film locked in with a producer, I suspect. Yes, I think you’re mid-blizzard as I type if the news is correct. I hope you find a way to luxuriate in it. Cool, new episode! Everyone, Here’s Steve with his newest treat for us: ‘The latest “Radio Not Radio” episode is out now. This one features Grote Geelstaart, Mandy, Indiana, Microhm, Only Now X Jajiju, Xaviersobased, Young Posse, Kidene Fighter, DJ Artigo016, Seo, DJ Kanji, Herbie Hancock, Sepalot, Three 6 Mafia, ELUCID & Sebb Bash, Dessa, Problema, EsDeeKid, Spice, Project Future, B-Boys, Nilza Costa, Barry Walker Jr., Sleeves, Anjimile, Charli XCX, Holodec, Marielle V. Jakobsons, Jaymin, Fall of Saigon, Amon Düül, Red Crayola and Chris Watson.’ ** Joshua, Hey, Joshua” I’m happy the gig sat well with you. That Athens, Georgia music scene was so fruitful for a while. Also, Love Tractor, Oh-OK, Matthew Sweet, Elephant 6, B-52s, etc. I’m glad you like Chris Olsen’s stuff. He’s great. He’s also a fantastic sculptor. Cool about the upcoming job. I’ve always romanticised working in a library. Yes, I would live to hear more about your multi-media piece when it’s at a point when you feel like going into it verbally. Sounds really exciting! Great! Happy Monday (and beyond). ** Steven Purtill, Steven! Shoes are among the greatest masters of that form. Tragic that they were just a little too intelligent and formally concentrated to be the success that the world deserved. I’m good, and you too, I sure hope? <3 ** Danny Benair, Hi, Danny. Well, of course! Honored to have you here, maestro! ** HaRpEr //, Yes, as good as the recorded Quick were, the unrecorded Quick is exceedingly even better. If record companies hadn’t lacked foresight and guts, they would have been huge. I use last.fm too. Very useful. I love Emitt Rhodes. I did a post about him here years ago. One of the very major proto-Power Pop figures. Exciting to hear that Charlie Fox has something new coming out. I’ve been waiting and hoping. ‘This Young Monster’ is fantastic. I met him once, and he’s a really great guy. ** Antonia, Hi, Antonia! It’s so good to meet you! I know I’ve had Wiktor Grodecki’s films, or at least ‘Body Without Soul’ here in some context or other, but I don’t think I’ve done a post about him and his films. I’ll see if there’s enough online to do that. Thank you so, so much about my books and for all of your kind words. I hope you’ll hang out here again if you feel like it. Tell me more about you and what you do, if you wish. xo. ** Steeqhen, I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope you’re upswinging notably by now. ** Bill, Adam Mars-Jones, wow, flashback to the ‘gay lit’ boom early days. I don’t think I ever read him. Not sure if I should? ** Uday, Interesting. I assume people in the US are crying all the time these days. Unless they’re too freaked out to. Sorry, mess, horrible timing, on your internal cold and the external one. But I’m glad it occasioned you sharing that beautiful passage with me. I hope your chest is starting to sing again. ** ANGUSRAZE, Hey! I’m alright, thank you. Well, of course, on the bandcamp linking. Share the wealth and all of that. Sure, I’d love to premiere the video. Just tell me how you want to do that, and we’ll sort it. Thanks! It sounds tasty. Album: will do. Love back to you, sir! ** Okay. I guess you’ve already seen what I’ve cooked up for you today. See you tomorrow.