The earliest jigsaws were maps, developed in the eighteenth century as educational tools for children. The map was printed on paper and pasted onto board before being cut into pieces. Rather than the interlocking pieces favoured today, the map was cut along the borders of counties, or countries, so that anyone assembling the jigsaw would learn the geography of the place shown.
The idea seems to have originated with Madame Beaumont, a French woman working in London, who ran a school in Henrietta Street in the mid-eighteenth century. She advertised the dissected maps that were available to the young ladies attending her school, for an additional charge of half a guinea. The idea was commercialised by John Spilsbury in the 1760s, who published jigsaw maps for wider sale; Spilsbury died young and although his wife continued his business, she does not appear to have developed the idea further. Others soon took it up however, and the Bodleian holds a jigsaw map of England and Wales divided into counties, published by Robert Sayer based on a map from the Traveller’s companion. Recently a second copy of this was donated to the Bodleian, with some interesting differences.
Both jigsaws feature the same map of England and Wales, cropped so that the jigsaw is an irregular shape and little of the surrounding sea is shown. One is on heavier board so the pieces are fairly chunky, while the other is flimsier. The one on heavier board also looks to have been printed while the copper plate was relatively new, as the details of the map are clear and dark; on the other (probably later) puzzle roads and hills appear fainter. Both puzzles are of course cut up along county boundaries, but the division in sea areas is slightly different, suggesting that they were cut up at random rather than to a set pattern.There are at least two areas where the the plate has been retouched; the place name of Flamborough Head is in bolder writing on the later plate, and the Isle of Man has changed slightly in shape between the two issues of the map.
The two jigsaw boxes differ as well; the chunkier jigsaw has (naturally) a slightly larger box, which has been decorated with a handpainted design, stuck on with paper. The other shows the original title, “The traveller’s companion, or the post roads of England and Wales, with the distances in measured miles.” The inside of the lid in both cases has the original label, giving the name and address of the publisher, Robert Sayer.
From the beginning of commerical jigsaws there are examples of the same puzzle being made available at different quality and price. A surviving trade card of John Spilsbury advertised his dissected maps in a “chip box” for 10 shillings and sixpence, in a square box for 12 shillings, or without the sea for 7 shillings and sixpence; since the aim of the puzzle was to assemble the areas on the map, the blank area of the sea was superfluous (although to true jigsaw devotees nowadays it might be the most interesting challenge). The differing qualities of the two jigsaws here suggests that a better quality one was sold first, and a thinner, perhaps cheaper option was offered a little later.
Assembling one of these jigsaws is still an interesting test of one’s knowledge of the geography of England and Wales. It also brings home how much the English counties differ in size; the piece for Yorkshire is enormous, while Rutland is so tiny that it’s amazing it has survived. One of the puzzles has unfortunately lost Berkshire; it probably went down the back of a sofa at some point between the 1770s and the puzzle being given to an Oxford charity shop, from where it made its way to the Bodleian as a recent donation.
UPDATE: This blog previously stated that Berkshire and Oxfordshire were missing from one of the puzzles. Oxfordshire has now been found by the donor, although Berkshire is still missing and has probably been so for some time.
[The traveller’s companion, or the post roads of England and Wales, with the distances in measured miles.] London : Printed for & sold by Robt. Sayer No. 53 Fleet Street, [1775?]. (E) C17 (806)
The traveller’s companion, or the post roads of England and Wales, with the distances in measured miles. London : Printed for & sold by Robt. Sayer No. 53 Fleet Street, [1775?] John Johnson Collection, Ballam Coll. Dissected Puzzles 50
Further reading: Norgate, M. (2007). Cutting Borders: Dissected Maps and the Origins of the Jigsaw Puzzle. The Cartographic Journal, 44(4), 342–350. https://doi.org/10.1179/000870407X241908