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

Notes:

Has a focus on products. Chapters include: 'Historical background'; 'The inventor - his life and background'; 'Eighteenth century dissections'; 'Nineteenth century dissections'; 'Principal publishers' [pp28-53] - 'The Dartons' / 'The Wallis family' / 'John Betts' / 'William Spooner' / 'Nicholas Carpenter' / 'James Izzard' / 'Arthur Park' / 'John Passmore' / 'William Peacock'; 'Dissections and the educationalist'; 'Dissections in literature'; 'Foreign puzzles'; Related puzzles'; 'Postscript'. An appendix provides a 'Check-list of dissected puzzles' [pp79-138] including names of publishers. Another provides a 'Biographical index' [pp139-54] which 'Lists all the persons and firms known to have been involved in the making of early jigsaw puzzles, whether publishers, dissectors, printers, engravers, artists or cartographers. The varying amount of information given can, to some extent, be explained by the person's importance in jigsaw production. More time has been spent on finding out relevant details of publishers, for instance, than of artists, who may not even have known that their designs would be used for dissections'. This 'Index' takes the form of a gazetteer giving addresses, name changes, dates, publications / jigsaws, short descriptive text per entry. Prominent are: Darton & Harvey, also known as Darton & Clark; the Barfoot family, especially James Richard and James Widdowfield; John Betts; John Spilsbury; the Wallis family, notably Edward and John; Philip, Son & Nephew, also known as George Philip & Son