Chad Valley jigsaws
Promotional puzzles
As well as the larger series of jigsaws for Dunlop, Cunard, and the GWR for example, Chad Valley also produced individual jigsaw puzzles for companies to sell or give away for promotional purposes. We have in our collection a small sample of such puzzles and they are described below.
Foster Brothers Clothing Company Ltd.
Published in about 1939 this is the second small card puzzle produced by Chad Valley for Foster Brothers. It is contained in a small book type box which is about 6 ⅛" x 4⅛" x ¾" deep. There is no guide picture and the box lid shows a family garthered round assembling a puzzle. In very small print in the outer border it says Manufactured by the Chad Valley Co. Ltd., Harborne, England. It seems likely that these puzzles were intended to be distributed from each of the 142 branches mentioned on the box having been endorsed with the branch name, in this case Local Branch: 12, High Street, WISBECH.
The puzzle is double sided, and on the reverse is a colouful image of a foreign flower and fruit market stall. There is no indication as to the artist of either picture. Click or tap on the puzzle thumbnail to see both sides of this puzzle.
Imperial and International Communications Ltd.
The large boldly coloured label states that this puzzle was Published by Imperial and International Communications Ltd. Manufactured by the Chad Valley Co. Ltd., Harborne, England. It is contained in the then standard brown lift off lid box which would have also contained a detailed pamplet describing the company's services, sadly missing in our example. One of the two round motifs on the label bears the name of 'Imperial and International Communications Limited', whilst that on the left shows Mercury with the words 'Cable and Wireless Limited'.
The jigsaw itself is also brightly coloured with those areas then forming part of the Empire shown in red. The wording inside the compass near the top of the image explains that the dotted green lines indicate wireless routes, whilst the solid green lines show cables of the I &IC. Within a smaller compass device towards the bottom left of the picture, it states that the map was made by Herry Perry for Imperial and International Communications Limited, and was completed in 1930. Anne Erica Thackeray "Herry" Perry was a graphic artist, illustrator, and printmaker best known for her prolific design work for Transport for London and London Underground throughout the 1920s and 1930s, eventually retiring in the early 1950s. We may guess therefore that the jigsaw was published sometime shortly after 1930.
Imperial Tobacco Co. (John Player & Sons)
This cartoon style picture shows a very busy scene at a travelling fair with a large amount of advertising for Player's cigarettes, and is signed by the artist A.A.White. Published in about 1938 it is contained in a small book type box which is about 6 ⅛" x 7⅝" x 2" deep. The spine label at the top echoes the Player's Please slogan which was used for many years.
The assembled size of the puzzle is not that great and so, being cut into about 200 pieces, some of the pieces are very small indeed and all are much smaller than those found in the other jigsaws in our collection.
John Player & Sons, commonly known simply as Player's, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer based in Nottingham who, in 1901, joined with the Bristol firm of W.D. & H.O.Wills, and others, to form The Imperial Tobacco Company. The constituent companies retained their own branding with the Player's Please slogan being widely used on packaging and in advertisements for products of the John Player division.
London Missionary Society
Formed in 1795 as the Missionary Society, it was renamed London Missionary Society in 1818. David Livingstone is perhaps the best known of their missionaries for his exploration of Africa. In the border at the foot of the full size guide pictute it is noted that the puzzle was Manufactured at the Chad Valley Works, Harborne, England. This puzzle was sold by the Society to raise funds in the early 1930s. It can be made up in the box which is just a bit larger than the puzzle at 6⅝" x 7¼" and ¼" high. The painting is signed A.Chidley and is known to have also been used by the Society on promotional postcards. The vessel in the painting carries the name 'JOHN WILLIAMS' and is flying the house flag of the Society, a white dove on blue ground. It is a simplified version of a larger and more detailed view of the vessel, bearing its full correct name, by the same artist. Arthur Chidley painted for the Royal Worcester porcelain factory and was a prolific watercolour artist with many of his paintings being published as postcards and some used as the subject of other jigsaws.
John Williams was born at Rupert House, High Cross Green, Tottenham on the 29th June 1796. He was accepted by the Missionary Society in 1816 and in 1817 he set sail with his wife for Tahiti in the South Pacific. On the 20th November 1839, whilst in the New Hebrides he and his fellow missionary James Harris were clubbed to death. The Society commissioned a new ship to be named 'John Williams' in his honour. Launched in Harwich during March 1844 she sailed from Gravesend a few months later but was wrecked on a reef at Pukapuka Island in 1864. This, the fifth vessel to bear his name, was a steel hull 3-masted staysail schooner with auxiliary power, built by the Grangemouth Dockyard Company and launched on 1st May 1930. During that summer, 'JOHN WILLIAMS V' undertook a fund raising tour of the UK and left at the beginning of October 1930. It was later used to evacuate settlers and carry supplies during World War II, but was wrecked in 1948 off Samoa. The last of these ships, 'John Williams VII', was launched in 1962 and sailed until 1968 when she was de-commissioned.
Wiggins Teape
This puzzle was produced for the paper-making firm of Wiggins Teape & Alex Pirie Ltd. in about 1935. It is contained in the then standard book type box which carries no wording relating to either Chad Valley or Wiggins Teape. The dark blue label does show a stylised jigsaw pattern with the 'Gateway' symbol and the puzzle name, both repeated on the spine labels. Glued to the inside of the box lid is a large explanatory label which does carry the name of both companies, together with the gateway motif and the words The face of this puzzle is a watermarked sheet of paper consisting of 100 pieces. The key to the solution will be found in the folded duplicate inside this box. This puzzle has been produced entirely by watermarking - no print whatever has been used.
The pattern on the jigsaw is rather feint and so is difficult to see, but it is clearer on the full‑size watermarked sheet
Click or tap link for a larger image which was included in place of a smaller guide picture. Our example still contains that sheet and the booklet, Famous Watermarks
Click or tap link to read the booklet in pdf form, both of which accompanied the jigsaw when sold. Watermarks remain almost invisible unless backlit and this was done when photographing the specimen sheet to show it to best advantge.
The Gateway symbol was originally used by the paper-making company Portals who sold their trade paper business to Wiggins Teape in 1930 in order to concentrate on their core business of banknote and high security papers. Use of the Gateway symbol was passed on in the sale and it became used as the principle trademark of Wiggins Teape.