Our inbox has been bristling with e-mail enquiries from literally around the globe. Gibsons puzzles unique nostalgic look have taken the fancy of puzzlers from Canada to Australia. The Gibsons puzzles we find most popular are those that are based on paintings. Pictures of people interacting with each other, whether it be buying fresh produce or flowers at the market, visiting the village blacksmith or having a snowfight, we can safely say are our most consistent bestsellers. There are several Gibsons puzzle artists who are eagerly sought after and once their new pictures arrive it’s hard to keep them in stock.  Photographs are more the norm from other European manufacturers and, quite frankly, how many ways can you photograph the same castle? Anyway for us, it’s from strength to strength.

The word “hobby” comes from hobby horse. Made from wood, a hobby-horse may look like and be climbed on like a real horse but it’s really only a toy, i.e. it’s being used for fun. To ride one’s hobby-horse is to play at horse riding and is not the real thing. Nowadays it means to induge a pastime and has latterly meant to partake of recreation.

Hobbies are practiced for interest and enjoyment, rather than financial reward. For example, people collect stamps, paint pictures, build plastic models and do jigsaw puzzles. Although a high degree of skill may be realised there is little reward beyond the satisfaction of achieving a level of competency and often appreciation by one’s peers.

One often finds a professional golfer enjoying fishing as a hobby and some F1 race car drivers can find relaxation in computer games. It is the amateur status of the hobbyist that differentiates his pursuit from that of the professional. Stamp collecting and jigsaw puzzles offer no remuneration beyond a sense of accomplishment. Nevertheless it is an important characteristic that we seek hobbies such as cooking and going to movies to relieve the daily stress of our working lives. Sadly TV doesn’t count as a hobby.

Obviously there are many ways to stimulate the brain such as reading, crosswords or playing mind teasers such as Sudoku. Card games have the added benefit of socialization as well as deductive reasoning. It has been recently brought to light that physical exercise and diet rather than mental feats alone will help prevent the onset of dementia.

Nevertheless it is the unexpected benefit of assembling a jigsaw puzzle that carries unique observational, cognition and motor skills making the pastime distinct. Puzzle manufacturers have seen the median age of the puzzle consumer advancing and (not through any act of altruism) have been developing more puzzles with extra large pieces. Typically an extra large piece puzzle will have 500 pieces and will be the same size as a regular 1000 piece puzzle. The images tend to be brightly colored with well defined sections and with pieces whose shapes tend not to be so similar.

Learning, consolidation, storage and recall are the four distinct stages of memory. Without the ability to recall it is impossible to determine the deterioration (or lack thereof) of the other three stages in an individual. If the mind of a healthy puzzler can put together a 1000 piece puzzle in less than one hour (which is a regular competitive feat) then by encouraging those same learning and consolidation techniques in a senior there is every reason to believe a cognitive benefit will be gained.

Jigsaw puzzles are apparently one of those products that, although, not unintentional, were never deliberately created for the hobby marketplace they now serve. John Spilsbury was a London mapmaker from the middle of the eighteenth century who had the idea that painting a world map onto a piece of flat wood and then cutting it into various countries and continents would prove a  useful teaching aid for children. By using a jigsaw which would allow for an intricate cut Spilsbury was able to saw out one-off and not particularly well fitting jigsaw puzzles.nThe puzzle would then provide a tool for small motor skills as well as a geographic reaching device. Wooden puzzles today are extremely rare and expensive and have been replaced by cardboard puzzles which are cheaper to produce, fit better and can have thousands of pieces to cater to the most avid puzzle hobbyist. Puzzle pieces tend to now have a familiar range of shapes with knobs and holes that fit into one another smoothly so long as the correct pieces are put together.

These tightly fitting pieces are referred to as fully interlocking which means that once correctly assembled the puzzle section is a tight and snug (and unique) fit.  Puzzles are still considered teaching aids and are made for children usually with large pieces for easy identification. Extra large jigsaw puzzles pieces are also now widely produced for older puzzlers whose hand and eyes are not as sure as they once were but still enjoy a good jigsaw puzzle challenge.