Jigsaw 17, Series 2

A Wentworth puzzle, originally bought for me, well before the current phase of jigsaw life, around the time of the millennium celebrations. Presumably a little after, as in the image the London Eye appears to be complete, up and running, which it was not at the time of the turn of the millennium. An Eye which had, however, provided much interest & entertainment as I followed its progress on my morning & afternoon walks across Westminster Bridge, this being before I moved up-river to Lambeth Bridge.

A serious puzzle, made from sustainable yield plywood using the traditional Victorian style of cut which is only made feasible in these days of high labour costs by the deployment of the latest computer driven, laser fueled technology. And to think that when I was doing O level physics, lasers were a curiosity for which no-one could think of an application. Traditional Victorian style means that the pieces are not cut on a regular grid in the manner, for example, of a puzzle from Falcon. They are completely irregular, including here the prong configuration, are not fully interlocking and include a lot of whimsies, for example the millennium numerals and various small animals. The large zeroes are just about visible in the enlarged version of the illustration (click on it).

Don't know how many pieces there are, beyond it being a lot less than my usual 500.

The lack of interlocking makes the puzzle rather fragile, even when fully assembled. Poke it and it is apt to come apart, a feature which made it very hard for FIL in his last years, with his elderly fingers and elderly eyes, and before retiring from this particular fray, he had become convinced that various pieces were missing, a conviction which I have to admit to sharing at various times during my solution.

Starting with the edge did not work with this puzzle as one could not be sure which pieces were the edge pieces; having a bit of straight was neither a necessary nor sufficient condition in the way that it is in more up to date puzzle. So started with the wheel then moved onto Hungerford Bridge, the strong horizontal across the bottom of the image. Then the buildings running along the banks of the Thames. Then the other two bridges, then the water in between. Then the water down stream of Hungerford Bridge and lastly the sky. The edge evolved along the way, but was complete shortly before the sky was complete.

An entertaining diversion from the usual run of puzzles from the Oxfam Shop. And pleased to find from the Wentworth web site (http://www.wentworthpuzzles.com/) that I now have a source for arty jig saws - jigsaws of proper pictures being my favourite, and Wentworth do lots of them, albeit at a price. It may well be that their computer driven, laser fueled technology enables them to make puzzles to order: feed the bit map of the desired image in at one end and plywood pops out of the other, closely followed by the box. Just the thing for a lover of arty jigsaws.

Will it be 'The Hunters in the Snow', a favourite of my father's, or will it be 'Sheep Reposing, Dalby Bay, Isle of Man', which appears to be a contemporary crib from 'Strayed Sheep', a reproduction of which hangs above this very keyboard?