Vintage Wood Puzzle Pieces

From the information I have gathered it's...

  • Brand: Delta Series Fine Cut Jig Saw Puzzles
  • Number of pieces: 250
  • Subject: Racing in the Solent
  • Year: approximately 1940's

I located the Delta Fine Cut catalogue on eBay below (it is not mine) which is selling for $99US. It shows the same image on the front of the catalogue as the box I do have above (it appears to be somewhat damaged and marked with ink).

The catalogue only shares up to page 19 which does not get to the 250 piece puzzles  - I am not about to buy the catalogue for $99US for $122 Canadian plus shipping to see if my puzzle is in that catalogue...especially when I fear the puzzle is not complete.

Then during my research, I found the Lyon-Turnbull auction which also displays my puzzle box cover. The Auction is fairly recent being 2015.

I found this at the Aberfoyle Antique Market when I lived then in 2015 and I recall I paid about $5.00 for the box. I do not own a vintage wooden jigsaw puzzle so when I saw this box it appeared to me to "be another man's treasure" and snatched it up right away. I am not overconcerned whether all the pieces are there or not - it's all about owning part of 'history'.

It is wonderful to have the original boxes even though they are in rough shape. You can see all the wooden pieces how thick they are cut. Clearly this is plywood with the image pasted to it.

I started with sorting through the box, then placed them in a pile on the table. I tried to sort the pieces according to shapes, colors and sizes. I have yet to determine IF there is more than one puzzle here.

I attempted to put some of the edges together, which there were not many at all. I also started a damaged section for there were several of those as you will see in the images below.

I have not located what this pictures for these/this jigsaw puzzle is but I do think there is more than one and possibly 3 all mixed into one box.

Outside box taped with masking tape
So few edge pieces
This image indicates 3 different puzzles
Similar colors to this puzzle
Similar colors and shapes to these pieces
Yet a third round of different pieces that did not seem to match the other 2
Sadly so many damaged pieces

So with all that said, I am still pleases with what I discovered for $5 and I have original, authentic 1940's wooden jigsaw puzzle pieces even if I never do get it assembled. I just gently packed it up to look at in my collection.