Home Posts tagged "puzzle" (Page 15)

Tag: puzzle

Puzzle: Paris, France

Size: 100 pieces
Dimensions: 23.17cm x 26.35cm
Producer: RoseArt, National Geographic series
Notes: The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is a wrought iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest building in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.

The tower stands 320 metres tall, about the same height as an 81-story building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Easter Island, Chile

Size: 100 pieces
Dimensions: 23.17cm x 26.35cm
Producer: RoseArt, National Geographic series
Notes: Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people.

The name “Easter Island” was given by the island’s first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday 1722, while searching for Davis or David’s island. [Wiki]

Moai are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island’s perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the living faces of deified ancestors. The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most would be cast down during later conflicts between clans. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Cairo, Egypt

Size: 100 pieces
Dimensions: 23.17cm x 26.35cm
Producer: RoseArt, National Geographic series
Notes: Cairo (literally “The Vanquisher” or “The Conqueror”), is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Located near the Nile Delta, it was founded in the year 969 A.D. making it 1,042 years old. Nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region’s political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century AD.; but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the ancient cities of Memphis, Giza and Fustat which are nearby to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza.

The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans established a fortress town along the east bank of the Nile. This fortress, known as Babylon, remains the oldest structure in the city. It is also situated at the nucleus of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine church in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo’s oldest Coptic churches, including The Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Country Living by Thomas Kinkade

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 69cm x 51cm
Producer: Ceaco
Artist: Thomas Kinkade
Notes: “In the country, wildflowers grow in profusion. To me, these bluebonnets, scotch broom and wild poppies symbolize the abundant blessings of Country Living; these are the tangible pleasures that surround you day in and day out where the air is pure and the sun is bright. This scene might be found any place where the hills and valleys are alive with nature’s harmony – the Texas hill country, the Smoky Mountains, the rolling Cascades, or even my native Sierra foothills.” [Thomas Kinkade, on the puzzle box]

Puzzle: Faery by Nadia Strelkina

Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 51cm x 68cm
Producer: Lafayette Puzzle Factory, Goldenline Fairies series, #3921
Artist: Nadia Strelkina
Painting: photo
Box: photo
Notes:  A fairy (also faery, faerie, fay, fae; euphemistically wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk, etc.) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.

Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term fairy offers many definitions. Sometimes the term describes any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes: at other times, the term only describes a specific type of more ethereal creature.

Much of the folklore about fairies revolves around protection from their malice, by such means as cold iron (iron is like poison to fairies, and they will not go near it) or charms of rowan and herbs, or avoiding offense by shunning locations known to be theirs. In particular, folklore describes how to prevent the fairies from stealing babies and substituting changelings, and abducting older people as well. Many folktales are told of fairies, and they appear as characters in stories from medieval tales of chivalry, to Victorian fairy tales, and up to the present day in modern literature. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Pisa in Motion by Robert J. Crisp

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 68.58cm
Producer: Heye, #29121
Artist: Robert J. Crisp
Notes: Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower (the bell tower of the city’s cathedral), the city … contains more than 20 other historic churches, several palaces and various bridges across the River Arno. [Wiki]

The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italian: Torre pendente di Pisa) … is situated behind the Cathedral and is the third oldest structure in Pisa’s Cathedral Square (Piazza del Duomo) after the Cathedral and the Baptistry.

The height of the tower is 55.86 m from the ground on the low side and 56.70 m on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m and at the top 2.48 m. Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons. The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. Prior to restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001, the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees, but the tower now leans at about 3.99 degrees. This means that the top of the tower is displaced horizontally 3.9 metres from where it would be if the structure were perfectly vertical. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Lilac and Pear Still Life

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 40.64cm x 40.64cm
Producer: Hasbro, MB Puzzle, Big Ben series
Notes: Syringa (Lilac) is a genus of about 20–25 species of flowering woody plants in the olive family (Oleaceae), native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly cultivated in temperate areas elsewhere.

The usual flower colour is a shade of purple (often a light purple or lilac), but white, pale yellow and pink, and even a dark burgundy color are also found. The flowers grow in large panicles, and in several species have a strong fragrance. Flowering varies between mid spring to early summer, depending on the species. The fruit is a dry, brown capsule, splitting in two at maturity to release the two winged seeds.

Lilacs are popular shrubs in parks and gardens throughout the temperate zone. In addition to the species listed above, several hybrids and numerous cultivars have been developed. The term French lilac is often used to refer to modern double-flowered cultivars, thanks to the work of prolific breeder Victor Lemoine. Lilacs will grow in a wide variety of soil types and prefer neutral to slightly acidic soil. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Feeding the Geese by Nicky Boehme

Size: 1000 pieces, 1 missing
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.57cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, #44714-2
Artist: Nicky Boehme
Notes: There are three living genera of true geese: Anser, grey geese, including the domesticated goose and the Swan Goose; Chen, white geese (often included in Anser); and Branta, black geese, such as the Canada goose.

The term goose applies to the female in particular while gander applies to the male in particular. Young birds before fledging are called goslings. The collective noun for group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; when in flight, they are called a skein, a team or a wedge; when flying close together, they are called a plump.

Geese are monogamous, living in permanent pairs throughout the year; however, unlike most other permanently monogamous animals, they are territorial only during the short nesting season. Paired geese are more dominant and feed more, two factors that result in more young. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Fruit – Pears, Apples, Grapes, Oranges, Kiwi

Size: 1000 pieces
Notes: I do not have a record of the dimensions or the producer of this 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 pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent.

The genus Pyrus is classified in subtribe Pyrinae within tribe Pyreae. The apple (Malus domestica), which it resembles in floral structure, is also a member of this subcategory.

Pears grow in the sublime orchard of Alcinous, in Odyssey vii: “Therein grow trees, tall and luxuriant, pears and pomegranates and apple-trees with their bright fruit, and sweet figs, and luxuriant olives. Of these the fruit perishes not nor fails in winter or in summer, but lasts throughout the year.”

The pear was also cultivated by the Romans, who did not eat them raw: Pliny’s Natural History recommended stewing them with honey and noted three dozen varieties. The Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius, De re coquinaria, has a recipe for a spiced, stewed-pear patina, or soufflé. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Above the Clouds 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]

Puzzle: From the same series as City of Wands, City of Coins, and Shangri-La Winter, by Ciro Marchetti.

Notes: Within the troposphere, red, orange, and pink clouds occur almost entirely at sunrise/sunset and are the result of the scattering of sunlight by the atmosphere. When the angle between the sun and the horizon is less than 10 percent, as it is just after sunrise or just prior to sunset, sunlight becomes too red due to refraction for any colors other than those with a reddish hue to be seen. The clouds do not become that color; they are reflecting long and unscattered rays of sunlight, which are predominant at those hours. The effect is much like if one were to shine a red spotlight on a white sheet. In combination with large, mature thunderheads, this can produce blood-red clouds. Clouds look darker in the near-infrared because water absorbs solar radiation at those wavelengths.

In high latitude regions of the stratosphere, nacreous clouds occasionally found there during the polar winter tend to display quite striking displays of mother-of-pearl colorations due to the refraction and diffusion of the sun’s rays through thin ice crystal clouds that often contain compounds other than water. At still higher altitudes up in the mesospere, noctilucent clouds sometimes seen in polar regions in the summer usually appear a silvery white that can resemble brightly illuminated cirrus. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Montréal – The City Character

Size: 513 pieces
Dimensions: 54cm x 38cm
Producer: Buffalo Games, Inc., ©1991 Descartes, Inc.
Notes: “The City Character Jigsaw Puzzle: The jigsaw puzzle you are holding is one of the most unique on the market today. It is a historical perspective of a great North American city. On it you will find the landmarks, businesses, neighborhoods, and people which give this city its singular flavor and personality. This puzzle celebrates the character of the city and is both a challenging jigsaw puzzle and an unmatched souvenir. Designs are available for over thirty cities and we are addint more all the time.

City Character Jigsaw Puzzles are currently available for:

Atlanta
Austin
Baltimore
Boston
Buffalo
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Dallas
Dayton
Denver
Detroit
Erie
Houston
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los ANgeles
Miami
Minneapolis
Montreal
New Orleans
New York City
Niagara Falls
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
San Francisco
San Antonio
St. Louis
Toronto
Washington”

[Puzzle box]

Puzzle: Mansion and garden

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Images series, #43670-14
Notes: A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over 740 square meters. A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and many bedrooms. Today, however, there is no formal definition beyond being a large and well-appointed house.

In the Roman Empire, a mansio was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or via, where cities sprang up, and where the villas of provincial officials came to be placed. The Scots word “manse” originally defined a property large enough for the Minister of the parish to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way (compare a Roman or medieval villa). ‘Manor’ comes from the same root — territorial holdings granted to a lord who would remain there — hence it can be seen how the word ‘Mansion’ came to have its meaning. [Wiki]

Puzzle: At the Fountain by Barbara Mock


Size: 1500 pieces Dimensions: 60cm x 90cm Producer: Jumbo International, Amsterdam, #00681 Artist: Barbara Mock Notes: A fountain (from the Latin “fons” or “fontis”, a source or spring) is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were originally purely functional, connected to springs or aqueducts and used to provide drinking water and water for bathing and washing to the residents of cities, towns and villages. Until the late 19th century most fountains operated by gravity, and needed a source of water higher than the fountain, such as a reservoir or aqueduct, to make the water flow or jet into the air. In addition to providing drinking water, fountains were used for decoration and to celebrate their builders. Roman fountains were decorated with bronze or stone masks of animals or heroes. In the Middle Ages, Moorish and Muslim garden designers used fountains to create miniature versions of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France used fountains in the Gardens of Versailles to illustrate his power over nature. The baroque decorative fountains of Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries marked the arrival point of restored Roman aqueducts and glorified the Popes who built them. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Magic Fire by Nadia Strelkina


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 51cm x 68cm
Producer: Lafayette Puzzle Factory, Goldenline Fairies series, #3921
Artist: Nadia Strelkina
Painting: photo
Box: photo
Notes: Within a work of fantasy, magic can function to move the plot forward, providing both power for the hero of the story and power for those who oppose him/her. The use of magic is often transformative of the character, if not the world.

In order to carry out this function, magic often carries a price, equal to its value.

In most fantasy works, magic is either depicted as an innate talent, is acquired through studying, or is given to someone who makes a pact, usually with a devil, spirit or other sorcerer.

Sometimes, too, a place will have magic; perhaps a certain location is “close to the spirit realm” or there are residues from powerful spells once cast there, or a place is magical by nature, as in the case of an enchanted forest. One such magical place is Faerie or Elfland. Its location may not be fixed — in some cases it acts as a parallel world — but magic is both found and occurs there. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Alice in Wonderland


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 49cm x 68cm
Producer: Master Pieces, #71143
Notes: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world (Wonderland) populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre, and its narrative course and structure have been enormously influential, especially in the fantasy genre.

“How Doth the Little Crocodile” is a poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in his novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It’s recited by Alice in Chapter 2. It describes a crafty crocodile which lures fish into its mouth with a welcoming smile.

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!

Puzzle: Audubon – American Robin


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 45.72cm x 45.72cm
Producer: Buffalo Games
Box: photo
Photographer: Adam Jones
Notes: The American Robin or North American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin[3] because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the flycatcher family. The American Robin is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering south of Canada from Florida to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast.

The American Robin is active mostly during the day and assembles in large flocks at night. Its diet consists of invertebrates (such as beetle grubs and caterpillars), fruits and berries. It is one of the earliest bird species to lay eggs, beginning to breed shortly after returning to its summer range from its winter range. Its nest consists of long coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers, and is smeared with mud and often cushioned with grass or other soft materials. It is among the first birds to sing at dawn, and its song consists of several discrete units that are repeated. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Audubon – Northern Cardinal


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 45.72cm x 45.72cm
Producer: Buffalo Games
Box: photo
Photographer: Gene Stone / Leeson Photography
Notes: The Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a North American bird in the genus Cardinalis; it is also known colloquially as the redbird or common cardinal. It can be found in southern Canada, through the eastern United States from Maine to Texas and south through Mexico. It is found in woodlands, gardens, shrublands, and swamps.

The Northern Cardinal is a mid-sized songbird with a body length of 21 centimeters (8.3 inches). It has a distinctive crest on the head and a mask on the face which is black in the male and gray in the female. The male is a vibrant red, while the female is a dull red-brown shade. The Northern Cardinal is mainly granivorous, but also feeds on insects and fruit. The male behaves territorially, marking out his territory with song. During courtship, the male feeds seed to the female beak-to-beak. A clutch of three to four eggs is laid, and two to four clutches are produced each year. It was once prized as a pet, but its sale as cage birds is now banned in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.6cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, Classic Treasures series, #41610-42
Notes: The Grand Place or Grote Markt About this sound listen is the central square of Brussels. It is surrounded by guildhalls, the city’s Town Hall, and the Breadhouse.

In the 10th century, Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine constructed a fort on Saint-Gery Island, the furthest inland point at which the Senne river was still navigable. This was the seed of what would become Brussels. By the end of the 11th century, an open-air marketplace was set up on a dried-up marsh near the fort that was surrounded by sandbanks. The market was called the Nedermerckt, or Lower Market.

Every two years in August, an enormous “flower carpet” is set up in the Grand Place for a few days. A million colourful begonias are set up in patterns, and the display covers a full 24 by 77 metres (79 by 253 ft), for area total of 1,800 square metres. The first flower carpet was made in 1971, and due to its popularity, the tradition continued, with the flower carpet attracting a large number of tourists. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Cholmondeley Castle


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group
Notes: Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. It is surrounded by a 7,500 acres estate.

In the 18th century Hugh Cholmondeley, 1st Earl of Cholmondeley had created gardens around the house, both kitchen gardens and orchards to provide food for the household, and also pleasure gardens. The pleasure gardens would have been formal in style as they were laid out by George London. The ironworker Jean Tijou produced an iron entrance gate to the gardens, but this was moved to Houghton Hall in Norfolk by the 4th Earl. John van Nost designed a fountain for the garden. The garden also contained a bowling green and an aviary. The 4th Earl brought in William Emes to redesign the garden who, according to the fashion of the day, buried London’s work under a landscape park. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Chateau Fontainebleu, France


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.6cm
Producer: Sure-Lox, The Canadian Group, Impressions series
Notes: The Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of Paris, is one of the largest French royal chateaux. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of Francis I. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards. The city of Fontainebleau has grown up around the remainder of the Forest of Fontainebleau, a former royal hunting park.This forest is now home to many endangered species of Europe.

The palace introduced to France the Italian Mannerist style in interior decoration and in gardens, and transformed them in the translation. The French Mannerist style of interior decoration of the 16th century is known as the “Fontainebleau style”: it combined sculpture, metalwork, painting, stucco and woodwork, and outdoors introduced the patterned garden parterre. The Fontainebleau style combined allegorical paintings in moulded plasterwork where the framing was treated as if it were leather or paper, slashed and rolled into scrolls and combined with arabesques and grotesques. Fontainebleau ideals of female beauty are Mannerist: a small neat head on a long neck, exaggeratedly long torso and limbs, small high breasts—almost a return to Late Gothic beauties. [Wiki]