1785-90.]. Partially hand-coloured engraved map mounted on wood and backed with plain paper and then dissected, cut loosely into 53 pieces in the shape of the coastline of England and Wales, approximately 46 x 52 cms, a little browned and dust-soiled, with some spotting in places, pieces interlocking though a couple not very close fitting, with possible loss of one tiny lug of an area of sea, otherwise exceptionally fine and complete; pieces housed within the original oak box 18 x 19 x 5cms, with mounted engraved pictorial label on sliding lid (somewhat browned and faded), with the key sheet of a square engraving bearing the imprint of Sayer mounted on the inside of the sliding lid; an extremely scarce survivor. The earliest examples of what we now call jigsaw puzzles were dissected maps, originally intended as educational games to teach geography. Surviving puzzles from this early period are extremely rare, and the present example is a most attractive and so far unrecorded variant.
Hannas records only one example of this dissection (author’s collection), and which appears to be a variant. The date on the box label is 1st Jany. 1786, and the pieces are not interlocking. The dimensions reveal that it was presented as a square, and used a variant issue of Rocque’s map, including a cartouche of a coach and four horses, with two further riders seen visible below the imprint. The Library of Congress appears to hold the same version. It seems almost impossible to determine which dissection precedes the other. As Shefrin highlights, an advertisement from a 1775 Sayer print catalogue, noted that: ‘Any of the foregoing maps may be had dissected on boards, for the use of such as are learners of geography; whereby they may readily learn the situation of every kingdom, state, or division’ (Shefrin p. 20). ‘The wording of the advertisement implies that puzzles could be made up on request from existing sheet maps rather than necessarily being available for sale in the shop already mounted and dissected, and some dissected maps appear to have been sold this way, produced from stray maps on hand’ (ibid). The present example has clearly been deliberately cut close around the coastline. Rocque’s Traveller’s companion map was originally issued in 1760 and went through various states. The copper plate was acquired by Robert Sayer after Rocque’s death, who appears to have made some modifications himself to the cartouche.
John Spilsbury (1739-69) is associated with some of the earliest examples which he produced during the 1760s, and is thus regarded as one of the first commercial producers of puzzles. How successful he might have been is uncertain, as he died at the age of 29 in 1769. By the 1780s a number of other printers had taken up the mantel, with early manufacturers of ‘jigsaws’ including William Darton & Son, John Wallis & Sons, Elizabeth Newbery and Robert Sayer (as here). Throughout the Victorian period the number of puzzle makers increased, with names such as John Betts, Arthur Parks and William Spooner coming to the fore. All manner of subject matters were used, though maps and religious scenes were the most popular, although a number relating to historical subjects were created. The word ‘jigsaw’ wasn't applied to these puzzles until 1909. By the 1810s John Wallis was proclaiming himself their inventor, Spilsbury’s claim having fallen by the wayside.