Jigsaw puzzle

The engraverand cartographer John

Spilsbury, of London, is believed to have

produced the first jigsaw puzzle around

1760, using a marquetrysaw .

Early

jigsaws, known as dissections, were

produced by mounting mapson sheets of

hardwoodand cutting along national

John Spilsbury' s "Europe divided into its kingdoms,

etc. " (1766). He created the jigsaw puzzle for

educational purposes, and called them “Dissected

Maps”.

boundaries, creating a puzzle useful for

the teaching of geography.

Such

" dissected maps" were used to teach the

children of King George IIIand Queen

Charlotteby royal governess Lady

Charlotte Finch.

The name "jigsaw" came to be associated

with the puzzle around 1880 when

fretsawsbecame the tool of choice for

cutting the shapes. Since fretsaws are

distinct from jigsaws, the name appears to

be a misnomer.

Cardboardjigsaw

puzzles appeared during the late 1800s,

but were slow to replace the wooden

jigsaw due to the manufacturer' s belief

that cardboard puzzles would be perceived

as being of low quality , and the fact that

profit marginson wooden jigsaws were

larger .