Puzzles
The jigsaw puzzle has been one of the most consistently popular toys for more than two hundred years and played with by both children and adults. The jigsaw puzzles that we know today were not created until the introduction in the 1870s of the jigsaw itself, a machine with which an irregular pattern could be cut. Dissected puzzles were the forerunners of jigsaws. They were very simply made by placing a picture on a piece of wood, usually mahogany, and cutting (dissecting) it into shapes. Some pieces might interlock, but most of the puzzle was just pushed into place. The puzzle pieces would have come with a box, usually with a guide picture on the lid.
A Londoner named John Spilsbury is credited as the first person to make a dissected puzzle as a toy for a child. John Spilsbury was apprenticed to Thomas Jefferys of St Martin’s Lane, London, in 1753, and in 1763 he was listed as an ‘engraver and map dissector in wood, in order to facilitate the teaching of geography.’ He died in 1769, and although part of his business continued, the company stopped making dissected maps. Established manufacturers of board games were quick to take up this new toy. As well as maps, other popular themes included history, significant events, biblical stories and industrial and agricultural processes.
Chronological Tables of English History
John Wallis, was an established publisher of games, who also produced puzzles. This puzzle is one of his earliest entitled 'Chronological Tables of English History for the Instruction of Youth', which was published in 1788.
Maze Games
The best known maze games are the simple ones where the aim is to guide a small ball through a maze enclosed in a box. This type of toy has been around since the end of the 19th century and some early examples used mercury instead of balls.
Jenga
Jenga was invented by British student Leslie Scott, who had spent her childhood in Africa playing with a set of locally made building blocks. She brought the game to England in the 1970s and introduced it to her friends at Oxford University.
Rubik’s Cube
The Rubik's Cube was invented by Erno Rubik, an interior design lecturer in Budapest. It is a puzzle in the form of a cube with nine squares on each face that have to be clicked and arranged into order. It was UK Toy of the Year in 1980 and 1981.
