1. The first Jigsaw Puzzle was created in 1767 by cartographer James Spilsbury who cut up a wood map with each country being its own piece to help teach geography.
2. The largest commercial Jigsaw Puzzle ever released is “Double Retrospect” a 32,256 piece puzzle manufactured by German puzzle company Ravensburger in 2010. The finished puzzle measures a whopping 544 cm x 192 cm and features pop art works from artist Keith Haring.
3. The second largest commercially sold jigsaw puzzle is “Life: the Great Challenge” by puzzle manufacturer Educa. The puzzle features a colorful array of fish animals and boats. It measures 428 cm x 157 cm and comes in a box that weighs just under 30 pounds.
4. The Rolling Stones had a song called Jigsaw Puzzle released in 1968 as part of the album Beggars Banquet. While not a hit, it’s country blues vibe and Dylanesq sound had some critics impressed but most just labeled it as an album filler song.
5. The term “Jigsaw” comes from puzzles being cut from wood by a Jigsaw tool.
6. Many studies have found that putting together Jigsaw Puzzles regularly has been linked to lower incidences of memory loss and Alzheimer’s.
7. Jigsaw Puzzle’s popularity peaked in the early 1900’s peaking around the end of the great depression in the 1930s. Jigsaw Puzzles were an inexpensive form of entertainment.
8. Most piece counts listed are not actual. Piece counts are rounded down to the nearest even number. For example the most common 1,000 piece puzzle layout is usually about 1.026 pieces and 500 piece puzzles are usually about 513 pieces.
9. The largest puzzle ever assembled had 551,232 pieces and depicted the image of a Lotus Flower. It was assembled in an arena in Vietnam by college students in 2011.
10. Two very famous logo’s feature jigsaw puzzle pieces: Autism Speaks and Wikipedia.
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