Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox
Artist: Jim Zuckerman – Jim has been a contributing editor to Photographic Magazine for 3 1/2 decades. His images, articles, and photo features have been published in scores of books and magazines including Time-Life books, publications of the National Geographic Society, Outdoor Photographer, Life Magazine, Omni Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Shutterbug, Science Fiction Age, National Wildlife and Opticon, a prestigious photo magazine in Greece. He is the author of 14 books on photography, and he now teaches many on-line courses. [Jim Zuckerman’s site]
Tag: architecture
Puzzle: San Xavier Mission, Arizona
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Impressions series
Notes: Mission San Xavier del Bac is a historic Spanish Catholic mission located about 16 km south of downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the Tohono O’odham San Xavier Indian Reservation. Named for a pioneering Christian missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order), the Mission is also known as the “place where the water appears,” as there were once natural springs in the area. The Santa Cruz River which now runs only part of the year is also nearby. The Mission is situated in the center of a centuries-old Indian settlement of the Tohono O’odham (formerly known as Papago), located along the banks of the Santa Cruz River. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Crash Course in Italian by Thomas Barbèy
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer: TreeToys, 2004, Puzzle Art series
Artist: Thomas Barbèy
Original: print
Notes: Every single one of my images has to pass what I like to call the “So what?” test. If a combination of two or more negatives put together doesn’t touch me or have any particular meaning, I throw it out. I try to combine images and sometimes the results can be disappointing. A giant clock in the middle of the ocean can be an unusual image but if I look at it and say to myself, “So waht?” This means it isn’t good enough. If instead, an ocean liner is going down a “funnel-type” hole and I entitle it “shortcut to China,” it takes on a whole new meaning. The picture takes you into an imaginary world where you can see the captain telling the passengers to fasten their safety belts to get prepared for the descent.
At times I come up with ideas beforehand, try to materialize them and it works. At other times, it is an accident and the ideas come afterwards, when the image is already finished and the concept has yet to be understood. It is almost as if I am learning constantly through the process of creation. I travel a lot to take photographs of different things and places. Sometimes I use an image several years later, but only when it fits, like the perfect piece in a puzzle, and completes my latest project. Some images are composed of negatives that are separated by a decade in the actual time that I had taken them and only come to life when they found their perfect match. it’s the combination of two or more negatives that they give birth to a completely unsual vision, but most of all, the title I give the final image is the glue and the substance of the piece. [Thomas Barbèy]
Puzzle: The Great Wall, China
Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Impressions
Notes: The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups. Several walls have been built since the 5th century BC that are referred to collectively as the Great Wall, which has been rebuilt and maintained from the 5th century BC through the 16th century. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains; the majority of the existing wall was built during the Ming Dynasty.
The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The most comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that all the walls measure 8,851.8 km. This is made up of 6,259.6 km sections of actual wall, 359.7 km of trenches and 2,232.5 km of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Santorini, Greece
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Land Marks series
Notes: The traditional architecture of Santorini is similar to that of the other Cyclades, with low-lying cubical houses, made of local stone and whitewashed or limewashed with various volcanic ashes used as colors. The unique characteristic is the common utilisation of the hypóskapha: extensions of houses dug sideways or downwards into the surrounding pumice. These rooms are prized because of the high insulation provided by the air-filled pumice, and are used as living quarters of unique coolness in the summer and warmth in the winter, and also as premium storage space for produce and especially for wine cellaring: the Kánava wineries of Santorini. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Monte Carlo, Monaco
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox
Notes: Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco. Monte Carlo is widely known for its casino and its prominence. The permanent population is about 15,000 in Quarter. Monte Carlo quarter includes not only Monte Carlo proper where the Le Grand Casino is located, it also includes the neighbourhoods of Saint-Michel, Saint-Roman/Tenao, and the beach community of Larvotto. It is also one of Monaco’s 10 wards with a population of 3,500. It borders the French town of Beausoleil (sometimes referred to as Monte-Carlo-Supérieur).
The “Monte Carlo” name is of Italian origin, meaning the “Mount of Charles” named after the Prince Charles III of Monaco during the time of his reign. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Rockefeller Center
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Land Marks series
Notes: Rockefeller Center or Rockefeller Plaza is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.
Paul Manship’s highly recognizable bronze gilded statue of the Greek legend of the Titan Prometheus recumbent, bringing fire to mankind, features prominently in the sunken plaza at the front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The model for Prometheus was Leonardo (Leon) Nole, and the inscription from Aeschylus, on the granite wall behind, reads: “Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends.” [Wiki]
Puzzle: View from the CN Tower
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, City Scapes series
Notes: The CN Tower is a communications and observation tower in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Standing 553.33 metres tall, it was completed in 1976, becoming the world’s tallest free-standing structure and world’s tallest tower at the time. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of the Burj Khalifa and Canton Tower. It remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, a signature icon of Toronto’s skyline, and a symbol of Canada.
Its name “CN” originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway’s decision to divest non-core freight railway assets, prior to the company’s privatization in 1995, it transferred the tower to the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation responsible for real estate development. Since the name CN Tower became common in daily usage, the abbreviation was eventually expanded to Canadian National Tower or Canada’s National Tower. However, neither of these names is commonly used. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Belvedere Castle
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 68cm x 48.1cm
Producer: Mega Brands, Click series
Notes: Belvedere Castle is a building in Central Park in New York, New York, that contains exhibit rooms and an observation deck.
Built as a Victorian folly in 1869, the castle caps Vista Rock, the park’s second-highest natural elevation Constructed of Manhattan schist quarried in the park and dressed with gray granite, it tops the natural-looking woodlands of The Ramble, as seen from the formal Bethesda Terrace. As the plantings matured, the castle has disappeared from its original intended viewpoint. Its turret is the highest point in the park.
Belvedere means ‘beautiful view’ or ‘panoramic view’ in Italian and the castle provides impressive views across Central Park and New York City. It was designed as an additional feature of the Central Park “Greensward” plan by the architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould after they, along with Frederick Law Olmsted, were reappointed to oversee the park’s construction in 1865.
The site, which overlooks the Lower Reservoir, already held a fire tower under the control of the Croton Aqueduct board. In 1867, the board transferred the site to the Park, and the fire tower was demolished. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Loire Valley, France
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 35cm x 48cm
Producer: Canada Games, Windsor
Location: The Loire Valley (French: Vallée de la Loire), spanning 280 kilometres, is located in the middle stretch of the Loire River in central France. It comprises an area of approximately 800 square kilometres. It is referred to as the Cradle of the French Language, and the Garden of France due to the abundance of vineyards, fruit orchards, artichoke, asparagus and cherry fields which line the banks of the river. Notable for its historic towns, architecture and wines, the valley has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period.
The valley includes historic towns such as Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Nantes, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours.
The architectural heritage in the valley’s historic towns is notable, especially its castles, such as the Châteaux d’Amboise, Château de Chambord, château d’Ussé, Château de Villandry and Chenonceau. The châteaux, numbering more than three hundred, represent a nation of builders starting with the necessary castle fortifications in the 10th century to the splendor of those built half a millennium later. When the French kings began constructing their huge châteaux here, the nobility, not wanting or even daring to be far from the seat of power, followed suit. Their presence in the lush, fertile valley began attracting the very best landscape designers. In addition to its many châteaux, the cultural monuments illustrate to an exceptional degree the ideals of the Renaissance and the Age of the Enlightenment on western European thought and design. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Sacré-Coeur Basilica, Paris, France
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles
Notes: Once again the puzzle producer failed to be informative regarding the building depicted on the puzzle, titling it only as “Paris, France”. Thanks to my Parisian friend, the building was identified as the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Monmartre.
Sacré-Cœur Basilica is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Paris, France. A popular landmark, the basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city. Sacré-Cœur is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the supposed excesses of the Second Empire and socialist Paris Commune of 1871 crowning its most rebellious neighborhood, and an embodiment of conservative moral order, publicly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Hidden Arbor by Thomas Kinkade
Size: 300 pieces (oversized)
Dimensions: 46cm x 61cm
Producer: Ceaco
Artist: Thomas Kinkade
Painting: “I often seek out a quiet place to meditate and pray; a special retreat like Hidden Arbor. This marvelous waterfall, with its myriad rivulets and streams; the climbing flowers on a romantic arbor is a little touch of heaven.” [Thomas Kinkade site]
A pergola, arbor or arbour is a garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained. As a type of gazebo, it may also be an extension of a building, or serve as protection for an open terrace or a link between pavilions. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Portland Head Lighthouse
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26 cm x 35.56 cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Images, #43270-10
Notes: Portland Head Light is a historic lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine that sits at the entrance of the shipping channel into Casco Bay. The headlight was the first built by the United States government, and is now a part of Fort Williams Park.
Construction began in 1787 at the directive of George Washington, and was completed on January 10, 1791. Whale oil lamps were originally used for illumination. In 1855 a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed; that was replaced by a second-order Fresnel lens in which was replaced by an aero beacon in 1958 . That lens was replaced with an DCB-224 aero beacon in 1991. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Traditional Village, The Czech Republic
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73.5cm x 49cm
Producer: Wonderful World
Location: The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest.
The Czech state, known as Bohemia and later as the Bohemian Crown, was formed in the late 9th century. The country reached its greatest territorial extent during the 13th and 14th century, under the rule of the Přemyslid and Luxembourg dynasties. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Kingdom of Bohemia was integrated into the Habsburg monarchy as one of its three principal parts alongside Austria and Hungary. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Zinalrothorn, Wallis, Switzerland
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 68 cm x 47 cm
Producer: Castorland Puzzle
Notes: The Zinalrothorn (4,221 m) is a mountain in the Pennine Alps in Switzerland. Its name comes from the village of Zinal lying on the north side and from the German word Rothorn which means Red Peak. When it was first climbed in 1864 the mountain was known locally as Moming. [Wiki]
The Valais (German: Wallis) is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton of Valais lies in the southwest of Switzerland. To its south lies Italy, to the southwest France. To the north the canton is bounded by the Swiss cantons of Vaud and Bern; the cantons of Uri and Ticino lie to its east.
The wide, glacial Rhône valley dominates the area. There are many side valleys which branch off the main valley. These vary from narrow and remote to reasonably populous and popular. At the head of the Mattertal valley lies Zermatt, a pretty tourist village dominated by views of the Matterhorn (4,478 m). Fifty of the mountains exceed 4,000 m with the highest, Monte Rosa, reaching to 4,638 metres, and there are numerous glaciers including several of the largest in the Alps. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Cortona Tuscany, Italy
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.4cm x 35.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Wonderful World series
Notes: Cortona is a town and comune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. It is the main cultural and artistic center of the Val di Chiana after Arezzo.
Originally an Umbrian city, it was conquered and enlarged by the Etruscans, who called it Curtun. Cortona eventually became a Roman colony under the name Corito. During the barbarian invasions of the 553, Cortona was sacked and destroyed by the Goths. Cortona became a Ghibellinian city state in the 13th century, with its own currency. From 1325 to 1409 the Ranieri-Casali family successfully ruled the town. After being conquered by Ladislaus of Naples in 1409, Cortona was sold to the Medici in 1411. In 1737, the senior branch of the Medici line went extinct and Cortona came under the authority of the House of Lorraine. Following the Italian Wars of Independence, Tuscany – Cortona included – became part of the Kingdom of Italy. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Scene in Switzerland
Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.5cm x 33cm
Producer: RoseArt, Encore series
Notes: Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.
Switzerland comprises three main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, and Italian, to which the Romansh-speaking valleys are added. The Swiss therefore do not form a nation in the sense of a common ethnic or linguistic identity. The strong sense of belonging to the country is founded on the common historical background, shared values (federalism, direct democracy, neutrality) and Alpine symbolism. [Wiki]
Puzzle: Cottage Thatch, County Limerick, Ireland
Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 68.58cm x 48.26cm
Producer: Mega, Windows to the World series
Notes: Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland’s Mid-West Region. Population wise, it is the fifth largest city in all of Ireland.
A limerick is a type of humorous verse of five lines with an AABBA rhyme scheme: the poem’s connection with the city is obscure, however, the name is generally taken to be a reference to Limerick City or County Limerick, sometimes particularly to the Maigue Poets, and may derive from an earlier form of nonsense verse parlour game that traditionally included a refrain that included “Will [or won’t] you come (up) to Limerick?” [Wiki]
Puzzle: Villa Coastline by Ming Feng
Size: 550 pieces
Dimensions: 61cm x 46cm
Producer: Hasbro, Milton Bradley, Picture Perfect series
Artist: Ming Feng was born on June 14, 1957 in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), China. Guangzhou, known as the “Flower City,” is situated in a subtropical area surrounded by lush trees, crisscrossing rivers and babbling brooks. “Nature’s beauty stirred my longing for art and its colorfulness gave wings to my imagination. I could not help but attempt to capture its beauty on paper. Perhaps that was the burgeoning of my passion for art. I was twelve.”
In 1988, Ming immigrated to the United States with his parents and settled in New York. The diversity of art there broadened his horizon while the market offered him more opportunities to show his paintings. He lived near New England’s Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, which today still remain his favorite places and the sources of his inspiration. [Framing Box site]
Notes: Beautiful puzzle cut with gaps being nearly invisible. Pieces fit together perfectly and there is no paper dust. A pleasure to assemble, glue, and display.
Puzzle: Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid, Spain
Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.57cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Classic Treasures series
Notes: The Plaza de Cibeles is a square with a neo-classical complex of marble sculptures with fountains that has become an iconic symbol for the city of Madrid.
The fountain of Cibeles is found in the part of Madrid commonly called the Paseo de Recoletos. This fountain, named after Cybele (or Ceres), Roman goddess of nature, is seen as one of Madrid’s most important symbols. The Cibeles fountain depicts the goddess, sitting on a chariot pulled by two lions. The fountain was built in the reign of Charles III and designed by Ventura Rodriguez between 1777 and 1782. The goddess and chariot are the work of Francisco Gutierrez and the lions by Roberto Michel. The fountain originally stood next to the Buenavista Palace, and was moved to its present location in the middle of the square in the late 19th century. Up until the 19th century both the fountain of Neptune and Cibeles looked directly at each other, until the city council decided to turn them round to face towards the centre of the city. [Wiki]