Home Archive by category "Puzzles" (Page 16)

Category: Puzzles

Puzzle: Cathedral Eger, Hungary


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: Eger has been inhabited since the Stone Age. Today’s Eger was formed in the 10th century by St. Stephen (997–1038), the first Christian king of Hungary, who founded an episcopal see in Eger. The first cathedral of Eger was built on Castle Hill, within the present site of Eger Castle. Eger grew up around its former cathedral and has remained an important religious centre in Hungary since its foundation. The 14th-16th centuries were an age of prosperity for Eger. Winegrowing, for which the town is still famous for, began to be important around that time. The bishops of Eger built beautiful buildings in the city during 18th and 19th centuries.

The Cathedral or basilica, built in 1831-37 to Classicist designs by Jozsef Hild, is imposing rather than attractive, but contains some remarkable painting and sculpture. Late morning organ recitals are held frequently.

Beside its historic sights and its thermal baths, Eger is famous for its wines. In fact, it produces both red and white wines of high quality Eger Wine Region. The famous and traditional varieties of the region are Egri Leanyka, Egerszolati Olaszrizling, Debroi Harslevelu (whites), and Egri Bikaver (a red). More recently, Chardonnay and Pinot noir wines have appeared. The region’s wines are said to bear a resemblance to those of Burgundy. Although the quality of the wines deteriorated in the second half of the 20th century, especially the cuvees, Eger is slowly recovering its reputation as a wine region. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Brighton, East Sussex, England


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles
Notes: In the mid 1780s George, Prince of Wales, rented a small farmhouse overlooking a fashionable promenade in Brighton.  Brighton was developing from a decayed fishing town to an established seaside retreat for the rich and famous, being close to London. George IV’s original farmhouse had little land attached to it. As his financial position improved he was able to purchase parcels of land surrounding the palace to create the estate we see today. John Nash transformed Henry Holland’s modest Marine Pavilion into an Indian-style palace. The grand central dome was balanced by the sweeping tent roofs of the Music Room and the Banqueting Room, and a forest of small domes, minarets, pinnacles and chimneystacks. The rendered surfaces of the Royal Pavilion were painted in imitation of stone to match real stone details, creating a unified vision of a building made of Bath stone.

The Royal Pavilion gardens were designed by John Nash as a picturesque pleasure ground for the king. The garden designs reflect the revolution in landscape gardening that had begun in the 1730s. Straight lines and symmetrical shapes were replaced with curving paths, natural groups of trees and shrubs and picturesque views. Planting began in 1816 (at the same time as John Nash’s remodelling of the Marine Pavilion) and was completed by the early 1820s. It provided an attractive, shady sanctuary on a hot summer’s day. [Royal Pavilion, Museums, and Libraries site]

Puzzle: Antique Fishing Series Puzzle


Size: 500 pieces, 1 missing
Dimensions: 50.8cm x 33.02cm
Producer: Cedar Key
Notes: Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.

Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back to, at least, the beginning of the Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago. Isotopic analysis of the skeletal remains of Tianyuan man, a 40,000 year old modern human from eastern Asia, has shown that he regularly consumed freshwater fish. Archaeology features such as shell middens, discarded fish bones and cave paintings show that sea foods were important for survival and consumed in significant quantities. During this period, most people lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and were, of necessity, constantly on the move. However, where there are early examples of permanent settlements (though not necessarily permanently occupied) such as those at Lepenski Vir, they are almost always associated with fishing as a major source of food.

Almost any equipment or gear used for fishing can be called fishing tackle. Some examples are hooks, lines, sinkers, floats, rods, reels, baits, lures, spears, nets, gaffs, traps, waders and tackle boxes. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Presumably Venice


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 43.18cm x 48.9cm
Producer: Hasbro, MB Puzzle
Notes: Venice is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon, connected by 409 bridges.[38] In the old centre, the canals serve the function of roads, and almost every form of transport is on water or on foot. In the 19th century a causeway to the mainland brought the Venezia Santa Lucia railway station to Venice, and the Ponte della Liberta road causeway and parking facilities were built during the twentieth century. Beyond the road/rail land entrances at the northern edge of the city, transportation within the city remains (as it was in centuries past) entirely on water or on foot. Venice is Europe’s largest urban car-free area. Venice is unique in Europe, in having remained a sizable functioning city in the twenty-first century entirely without motorcars or trucks.

The classical Venetian boat is the gondola, although it is now mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies. Many gondolas are lushly appointed with crushed velvet seats and Persian rugs. Less well-known is the smaller sandolo. The main transportation means are motorised waterbuses (vaporetti), which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city’s islands, and private boats. The only gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges. [Wiki]

Puzzle: European Riverbank


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, Impressions series
Notes: Hundreds of rivers and their tributaries cross the European continent. WorldAtlas highlights those over 600 miles in length, and a few others of note.

A riverbank or stream-bank: the terrain alongside the bed of a river, creek, or stream. [Wiki]

Click on a name of the river to trace its passage through Europe and see statistical information about it on the EurAtlas site.

Puzzle: Child of the Universe by Josephine Wall


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 48.5cm x 73cm
Producer:  The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Art of Josephine Wall, #40699-103
Artist: Josephine Wall

Notes:  She blows us kisses across time and space, gaining everlasting goodness and energy from her crystal. Legend has it that crystals embody the power to heal and protect so it is no wonder that the child of the universe draws from the crystal before her. Beside her is a galactic jet emitting a flood of charged particles to fill her with light and life. She gently blows her magic kisses across time and space, sending peace and beauty into our world. [Josephine Wall’s site]

Puzzle: Titania & Oberon by Josephine Wall


Size: 750 pieces, 1 missing
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer:  The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Art of Josephine Wall, #40599-104
Artist: Josephine Wall

Notes: The inspiration for this image is drawn from the masterly writings of William Shakespeare. Whether he envisioned them the same, I will never know. The King & Queen of fairyland are soaring high with their winged entourage. With the beating of many wings and the heady fragrance of woodland flowers they gather for a moonlit revel. [Josephine Wall’s site]

Puzzle: Taj Mahal, India


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.69cm x 39.37cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, images series, #43570-13
Notes: The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia and over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials. The translucent white marble was brought from Makrana, Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.

A labour force of twenty thousand workers was recruited across northern India. Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers from southern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers were part of the thirty-seven men who formed the creative unit. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Havasu Falls, Grand Canyon, U.S.A.


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, images series
Notes: A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.

Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens slowly, while downstream the erosion occurs more rapidly. As the watercourse increases its velocity at the edge of the waterfall, it plucks material from the riverbed. Whirlpools created in the turbulence as well as sand and stones carried by the watercourse increase the erosion capacity. This causes the waterfall to carve deeper into the bed and to recede upstream. Often over time, the waterfall will recede back to form a canyon or gorge downstream as it recedes upstream, and it will carve deeper into the ridge above it. The rate of retreat for a waterfall can be as high as one and half meters per year. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Leo by Josephine Wall


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 33.02cm x 48.26cm
Producer:  The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Art of Josephine Wall
Artist: Josephine Wall

Notes:  Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac, originating from the constellation of Leo. In astrology, Leo is considered to be a “masculine”, positive (extrovert) sign. It is also considered a fire sign and is one of four fixed signs ruled by the Sun. [Wiki]

The Persians called Leo Ser or Shir; the Turks, Artan; the Syrians, Aryo; the Jewish, Arye; the Indians, Simha, all meaning “lion”. In Babylonian astronomy the constellation was called UR.GU.LA – the ‘Great Lion’; the bright star, Regulus, that stands at the Lion’s breast also had distinctly regal associations as it was known as the King Star.

In Greek mythology, Leo was identified as the Nemean Lion which was killed by Hercules during one of his twelve labours, and subsequently put into the sky.

The Roman poet Ovid called it Herculeus Leo and Violentus Leo. Bacchi Sidus (star of Bacchus) was another of its titles, the god Bacchus always being identified with this animal. However, Manilius called it Jovis et Junonis Sidus (Star of Jupiter and Juno).

Early Hindu astronomers knew it as Asleha and as Sinha, the Tamil Simham. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Enchanted Manor by Josephine Wall


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer:  The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Art of Josephine Wall, #40599-103
Artist: Josephine Wall

Notes: Josephine’s work was featured during the making of a television programme called Homes Under the Hammer.

The programme followed the refurbishment of a property called the Windcliffe Hotel on the Isle of Wight, from the auction purchase to it’s conversion into what has become the “Enchanted Manor”. [Josephine Wall’s site]

History of the Enchanted Manor – http://www.enchantedmanor.co.uk/our-story.html

Josephine’s work was featured during the making of a television programme called Homes Under the Hammer.

The programme followed the refurbishment of a property called the Windcliffe Hotel on the Isle of Wight, from the auction purchase to it’s conversion into what has become the “Enchanted Manor”.

Puzzle: Spirit of Flight by Josephine Wall

Josephine Wall - Spirit of Flight, med
Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer:  The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Art of Josephine Wall, #40599-102
Artist: Josephine Wall

Notes: The Spirit of Flight, the force responsible for the powers of movement of the wind and air, has gathered around her all the flying things she loves. Birds, insects, flying fish, swirling leaves, seeds of dandelions and sycamore trees, butterflies and fairies all dance around her in a grand array of wild free motion. [Josephine Wall’s site]

Puzzle: City of Wands by Ciro Marchetti

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51cm x 68cm
Producer:  LPF Ltd., Holographic puzzle, #3921
Artist: Ciro Marchetti has had a successful graphic design career that has spanned working in Europe, South America and the US. He is a five-time recipient of the distinguished Photoshop GURU award, and three time winner of the Worldwide Photoshop Competition presented by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. The current content and style of recent illustrations directly reflect his sources of interest and inspiration, allowing him to create richly detailed images that conjure up retro- tech worlds of fantasy and imagination. [Puzzle box]
Notes: Beautiful puzzle and a pleasure to put together, from the same series as Above the Clouds, City of Coins, and Shangri-La Winter, by Ciro Marchetti. It now adorns a wall in my studio as one of my favourites. There is supposedly another one in this series by the same artist, but I have not been able to find it yet.

Puzzle: Doors of Dublin, Ireland


Size: 500 pieces
Notes: I brought this puzzle with me from Ireland in 2008. I do not have a record of the producer of the puzzle as I do not have the box anymore. A clarification is welcome – if you have any clue as to the details regarding this puzzle, I would much appreciate that information.

“If you’ve taken an escorted tour of Dublin you might have been told by your guide that the famous writer George Moore lived next to another famous writer, Oliver St John Gogarty, in Ely Place. Both were a bit eccentric and it’s said that Moore painted his door green so that the drunken Gogarty would not come knocking on it, thinking it to be his own door. Gogarty then painted his door red so that the drunken Moore would not come knocking on his door! And that’ supposedly is what started the fashion. The truth is a lot less colourful.

According to the history books, George Moore was generally abstemious, drinking only a little wine with dinner and repelled by displays of public drunkeness. More relevant to our story however, was that George’s home and those of his neghbours were built in the Georgian style and the exteriors had to adhere to strict architectural guidelines. In order to set themselves apart, the former residents of Georgian Dublin painted their front doors whatever color they fancied (“red was more durable”), added ornate knockers, elegant fanlights above the door, and wrought iron boot scrapers, near the the entrance. Decorated iron coal-hole covers were often embedded in the pavement. Today, most of the houses have their original fanlights, some still with box shaped glass recesses in which a lamp would have been placed. There are also examples of a simple security device in the form of a fan-shaped arrangement of spikes set into the wall beside a window to foil burglars. Sometimes a similar device was inserted inside the fanlight.” [Irish culture and customs site]

Puzzle: Bickleigh, Devon, England


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: MB Puzzles, Big Ben
Notes: Bickleigh is a village and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England, about four miles south of Tiverton. It is in the former hundred of Hayridge. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 239. It should not be confused with Bickleigh, a village near Plymouth, also in Devon.

The village lies in the valley of the River Exe at the point where it meets the much smaller River Dart. There is an attractive medieval stone bridge across the Exe. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Bichelei, meaning “Bicca’s meadow”. [Wiki]

Puzzle: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ireland


Size: 500 pieces
Notes: I brought this puzzle with me from Ireland in 2008. I do not have a record of the producer of the puzzle as I do not have the box anymore. A clarification is welcome – if you have any clue as to the details regarding this puzzle, I would much appreciate that information.

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, or more formally, the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Patrick, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland which was founded in 1191. The Church has designated it as The National Cathedral of Ireland. It is the larger of the Church’s two cathedrals in the city and is the largest church in Ireland with a 43 metre spire. [Wiki]

Built in honour of Ireland’s patron saint, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral stands adjacent to the famous well where tradition has it Saint Patrick baptized converts on his visit to Dublin.

The parish church of Saint Patrick on this site was granted collegiate status in 1191, and raised to cathedral status in 1224. The present building dates from 1220. The Cathedral is today the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland (a church of the Anglican communion). [Saint Patrick’s Cathedral site]

Puzzle: Spirit of the Elements by Josephine Wall


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer:  The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Art of Josephine Wall
Artist: Josephine Wall

Notes: The powerful spirit rises up to fill our lives with all the elements we need to complete the cycle of nature. Raging seas challenge our courage to the limits, teaching us the skills and strength we will need to endure the storms and darkness ahead.

A winter wonderland in which the landscape is transformed into a playground for us, and allows nature to slumber, gathering strength to burst forth in all it’s splendour, as the first signs of spring approach.

As the dark skies clear, and we feel the tranquil breath of spring, we are greeted by a gleaming sun, which colludes with the gentle rain to bring us a myriad rainbows, and to restart the cycle of life. [Josephine Wall’s site]

Puzzle: Rock of Cashel, Ireland


Size: 500 pieces
Notes: I brought this puzzle with me from Ireland in 2008. I do not have a record of the producer of the puzzle as I do not have the box anymore. A clarification is welcome – if you have any clue as to the details regarding this puzzle, I would much appreciate that information.

The Rock of Cashel (Irish: Carraig Phádraig), also known as Cashel of the Kings and St. Patrick’s Rock, is a historic site in Ireland’s province of Munster, located at Cashel, South Tipperary.

The Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasion. Few remnants of the early structures survive; the majority of buildings on the current site date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Cashel is reputed to be the site of the conversion of the King of Munster by St. Patrick in the 5th century. The picturesque complex has a character of its own and is one of the most remarkable collections of Celtic art and medieval architecture to be found anywhere in Europe.

According to local mythology, the Rock of Cashel originated in the Devil’s Bit, a mountain 20 miles(30 km) north of Cashel when St. Patrick banished Satan from a cave, resulting in the Rock’s landing in Cashel. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Ray of Light by Jim Zuckerman


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]