PUZZLES THAT PUZZLE US

This is the one page where we ask you for information.
Please can you help us answer some of these questions?


We will send a puzzle to the first convincing answer to each that we receive.

 

 

 

This board looks as though it was made around 1870-1890.

What game or puzzle was played on it?


Please note that it is not the 8 pointed "Octostar Puzzle" .

 

 

 

What is the script on the Napkin Ring?

What does "1/6 ME A DOG" mean?


Can you solve either of these
Johnson Coins?

Who was Scannavini ?

 

 

What is this extraordinary print.
A Game, a Puzzle, or an Oracle?

Published by W.H.Crook, London 1812.

The cube measures 9.3 cm. overall.

The unit squares depict all manner of things and are numbered from 61 to 100.

Was ther originally another part numbered 1 to 60?

 

 

 

We have used rubber bands to hold the cube in shape for these photographs as the original tabs are now very weak.

Is this TRENTAL? What is TRENTAL?


Have you got this puzzle or game?

We think this beautiful board (33 cm. diameter) is for a puzzle called TRENTAL. We think it should have 30 balls and 20 or so pieces that look like turned Trees about 3 to 4 cm. tall.

We badly want a copy of the rules, and if found, a set of the balls & "tree" pieces. Maybe someone out there has a nice mahogany box full of all that we are missing.

The bottom of the board.

 

How old is this gold 3-band puzzle ring, and from where does it come ?

Devanagiri

Several Jewelry experts have looked and suggested ages of 150 to over 600 years old. The key to the correct date must lie in the script and meaning of the script.

The first suggestion was that they were a stylized form of IHS; however now we have had three people tell us that the characters should be orientated as shown above, and that they are DEVANAGARI.

If this is correct then our gold puzzle comes from Northern India, Nepal or thereabouts. Can anyone deduce the precise location, their age, and the meaning? If so, please email us.

 

Possibly we are wrong and have the writing the wrong way up.
Is there a completely different interpretation?


JG of Chicago won a puzzle prize by locating the ring that appeared in this picture from a Pictorial Encyclopedia of around 1910. It is a medieval puzzle ring which splits up into three interlocked rings and is very similar to our's.

Another puzzle prize is still available for translating the script and pointing the way to the origin of our gold ring.

What is this curious object?

A small bone or ivory tray on legs containing 15 tablets.
The solid tray is divided 4 x 4: Half the squares are numbered and half are rosewood.
The 15 loose tablets have numbers on both sides:
The values are shown in the table opposite thus number 10 has number 90 on its reverse.
Can you tell us what it is? A Puzzle, A Game, or something else?
Is it missing one piece? If so what numbers should be on the missing piece?

P449  le with numbers        
           
           
Layout of The Tray  
  20 160 x x  
  x x 60 120  
  114 40 x x  
  x x 100 80  
           
Pieces
side A
side B
     
1 10 90      
2 20 100      
3 30 110      
4
40
120      
5 50 130      
6 60 140      
7 70 150      
8 80 160      
9 10 170      
10 20 180      
11 30 190      
12 40 200      
13 50 210      
14 60 220      
15 70 230      
           
 
We will give a puzzle prize to the first person to tell us the answer to any of the questions above. ! ! !
 



No prizes but please can you tell us about, or put us in touch with, the 3 makers of these beautiful Jigsaw puzzles from the mid-1970s. Initials of two are JM and JN,


Who made these wonderful 3D Jigsaws in the 1990s?
It is possibly they were made in Wales U.K. but larger lighthouse looks as though like Brant Point, Nantucket, USA

 

If you arrived here looking for a "Puzzle of the Month" then perhaps we are late, or maybe you are early, in either case here are some other places in the Puzzle Museum that you may not have discovered:-

Books and Ephemera

The Jaques Project

 

Professor Hoffmann Editions

Random Destinations click
here then keep clicking the
back button.

 

Site Map

 

Catalogue Trials